Wayward Daughters
by Devanelle
Summary: Driven from the only home they have ever known identical twins Bethany and Alexandra Clark have no choice but travel the Capital Wasteland in search of their missing father. Bethany wants her family back, and Alex just wants some answers. Will the girls be consumed by the horrors of the post-Apocalypse or will they rise from the ashes stronger and more fearsome than ever?
1. My Sister and I

**This is a story I wrote because these characters have been floating around in my head for years and I figured I needed to get heir story out before I could commit to writing anything else. I'm writing it for myself more than anything but I figured I'd post it just in case this was exactly what someone was looking for.**

 **I own nothing but my own characters**

* * *

 **My Sister and I**

Alex was vaguely aware of an alarm penetrating the depths of her consciousness. Each wave of noise tugged harder and harder trying to pry her from sleep. Alex groaned and tried to will herself to stay asleep longer. Each beep added to her growing irritation and she sat up on the edge of her bed mashing her palms against her eye sockets. This was her day off, and it was _supposed_ to be her chance to sleep in. She sighed and looked at her Pip-boy on her left wrist which was glowing a dim green color, still in sleep mode. Alex tweaked a knob and the screen came to life flashing, notifying her she had messages.

Alex toggled over and saw that they were all from the Overseer, she scrolled up and saw there were at least fifteen. Before she could even scroll back down another message pinged into her inbox. This one was from Bethany, "what the hell?" she mumbled. Alex selected the message and jumped as someone banged loudly on her door. She pushed off her bed and padded across the metal floor of her single-room apartment. Someone banged on the door more urgently. "I'm coming, I'm coming calm down." She called out.

Alex pushed the green button on the keypad and the heavy door lifted with a whoosh revealing her wide-eyed twin sister Bethany. The alarm was much louder from the hallway, the sound invaded her room and echoed loudly in her ears. "What are you doing? You have to get dressed!" Bethany urged. Bethany pushed past her roughly almost knocking Alex over. Amata, who she just now noticed, followed suit. A sarcastic comment died in her throat when Amata gripped her arms and shook her lightly "Come on, you need to move!" she pleaded. Alex recoiled from the touch immediately.

She glanced at Bethany, who was quickly tapping the keypad locking the door behind them. She had her bag thrown over her shoulder and her free hand was tightly gripped around a …was that a gun? Alex shoved Amata off her and backed up. "What the hell is going on? Why do you have that?" She jabbed her finger at the weapon in her sister's hand. It looked like the small black pistols the security officers had holstered on their hips. Bethany ignored her jamming the gun into her belt and moving past her into the small apartment. Alex chased after her sister as she grabbed Alex's tool bag and started throwing items from the desk into it. Alex grabbed Bethany's arm and yanked her around to face her causing her to drop the bag. Bethany's eyes were the size of saucers and they would not focus. Alex's heart dropped into her gut, "Beth, please tell me what's going on?"

Bethany took a shaky breath, "Alex it's horrible, Dad left and I don't know why and they killed Jonas and now the Overseer is after us!" The words rushed out of her all at once and Alex stared blankly. Bethany's eyes watered, and Alex's own stung in response. Bethany threw her arms around Alex and buried her face in her shoulder. Alex gripped her back instinctively, "What do you mean left?" she questioned, unable to comprehend. None of it made any sense, where could he go? She turned her head to look at Amata, her face was grim and she wouldn't meet her eyes.

"I'm sorry, but we don't have time for this, they could be here any minute. You need to leave." Amata responded. Bethany released Alex and picked up the bag she'd dropped at their feet.

"She's right." Bethany stated, wiping her eyes. Alex stirred as the gravity of their situation finally settled in.

"You mean he's left the vault." Alex didn't need to look at them to know it was true, their silence was confirmation enough. She went to her dresser and riffled through it tossing two vault suits to her sister. Bethany caught them and stuffed them into Alex's bag. "Okay, what's the plan?" she said pulling the zipper of a clean vault suit up to her neck.

"You need to get to my dad's office, he has a terminal in there that opens a secret passage. From there it's a straight shot to the vault door." Amata pulled the edge of the blinds back looking out into the hall. "The coast is clear, for now, anyway. You guys need to get going."

Alex took the bag from Bethany's outstretched hand and shrugged it over her shoulder with a grunt. It was heavy, containing her work tools, clothing, and anything else Bethany deemed a necessity, but she could manage. "How exactly are we supposed to get there? You said he's looking for us, there must be security all over." Alex prompted. She shifted her weight, anxiety was making her muscles tense.

"I'll be running interference with my dad, that's why I gave Beth the gun, I'm hoping you guys don't have to use it, but after what they did to Jonas…" Amata trailed off her voice cracking. Bethany put a comforting hand on her shoulder and turned to her sister, "Speaking of which; here." She held out their old BB gun, a gift from their father. Alex shook her head, taking her dented baseball bat down from the shelf.

"Keep it, it'll just weigh me down, besides, you've always been the better shot." Bethany gave a curt nod slinging it back across her shoulder.

Bethany's hand hovered over the keypad next to the door and looked back at Alex. The two looked at each other steeling the other for what awaited them outside, "Alright. Let's go."

* * *

Being out in the hallway was an entirely different experience than being in her room. The combination of the blaring alarm, and the flashing red lights were already bringing on a massive throbbing in her head and they'd only left the room thirty seconds ago. Alex pushed back against the pain and looked at her sister jogging through the empty hallway in front of her, she could tell just from the set of her shoulders what this was doing to her. She wasn't sure Bethany was going to let Amata go play decoy a few moment before, but she had and it was taking its toll. On top of everything else.

Bethany and their dad spent a lot of time together, even before the G.O.A.T. she'd spent pretty much all her time in the clinic. Their dad was a pretty private person but... She called out to her sister, "Are you sure you had no idea about all this?"

Bethany slowed not bothering to look back, "No I didn't, but I'm sure he has a good reason for keeping it from me." Her voice cracked, Alex reached her arm out to her sister. Overhead the announcement about the "radroach infestation" sounded on the P.A. for the millionth time. "Beth, I-"

"Don't." Bethany cut her off, "Let's just focus on getting out of here." As they rounded the corner they ran right into Officer White in full security armor.

"You two stop right there!" He commanded, he grabbed onto Bethany's arm tightly and she squeaked in response. Alex lurched forward shoving him off her. He stumbled and landed on his side with a grunt.

"Go!" Alex shouted pushing Bethany down the hallway to their left. She whirled to see if he was following them to find that he was being attack by radroaches pouring from a nearby vent. She didn't want to give either of them a chance so she turned back around and started running. So the radroach infestation wasn't just a cover. Alex screamed as one of the overgrown bugs flew at her face. She swung her bat wildly knocking it to the ground. Bethany stomped on it and kept stomping until it was just a pulply stain. They locked eyes for a moment and Alex laughed breathlessly.

"Come on." Bethany said gesturing her forward. Alex focused on the sound of Bethany's hard breathing and the sound of their boots slapping against metal in tandem. They were almost out of the living quarters now. This was near Butch's apartment her brain supplied. She'd been down this particular hallway more times than she could count. Another figure came flying around the corner and Bethany raised the pistol in response. Speak of the devil. He was uncharacteristically disheveled; sweaty and panting.

"You need to get out of here Butch, go home, you'll be safe there." Bethany said lowering her gun. He ignored her completely and grabbed ahold of Alex's shoulders. Man that was getting old fast.

"You- you gotta help. My mom's trapped in there will all those roaches!" he cried.

"Shit." Alex cursed under her breath. She threw her bag down and grabbed the BB gun from Bethany.

"Are you kidding me?" Bethany asked. "We don't have time for this make him do it. They're just radroaches."

Alex didn't stop moving, "Stay here, I'll be right back. Butch come on."

"No way man. I'm not going back in there." He paled and backed up a little.

She thrust the BB gun into his hands, "Butch, it's your mom."

He shook his head, "You're right."

She led the way glancing back to make sure he was still following her. As she entered his apartments she could hear Ellen cry out in pain. She bolted towards the bedroom door and it opened automatically. She ran in and started swinging. She could hear the crack of the BB gun from behind her as she wrenched one of the creatures off Ellen's back and crushed its head under her boot. She felt the sharp sting of a BB pelting her thigh, she gritted her teeth and kept swinging. Between the two of them the bugs were dead just as quickly as they'd arrive.

Alex gently lifted Ellen to her feet and guided her to the sofa. She crouched down and looked into her face. "Hey, Ellen, you okay?" Alex questioned. A dreamy smile drew across the older woman's face. She reached out and stroked Alex's cheek. "Such a good girl, always good to me and my Butchie." She was drunk, and aside from a few scrapes, looked no worse for wear. Alex straightened and looked up at Butch, who was scowling at his mother.

"Enough of that Ma." He turned to Alex and his face softened. "Thanks. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't come by."

"You would have done what you needed to do." Alex said. Butch didn't look too convinced. He rubbed his neck and avoided making eye contact.

"You leaving?" He asked. His tone was weird, too soft, too sad, not Butch enough.

"We're going after my dad." Alex said. She felt like there was something she needed to say, should say, an explanation maybe, but when she met his eyes she couldn't find the words. Ellen had moved from the couch at some point, and she could be heard fumbling around the room. He stared down at her, he opened him mouth and then closed it. She couldn't remember the last time they'd actually had a conversation.

"I need to get back to Bethany," she began to turn when Butch grabbed her roughly dropping the BB gun with a clatter. He pressed his whole body against her, hands tangling in her hair while he pulled their faces together. It wasn't a nice kiss; it was hard and urgent. Their lips moved together and she grabbed onto his jacket in an attempted to pull them closer. He pulled back and studied her face, their lips still inches apart. Alex stepped back and Butch shrugged off his leather jacket pushing it into her hands. "Here, to remember me by." Her stunned look melted into a lop-sided grin, he looked naked without the thing.

"Take care of your mom okay?" She said as she turned to leave. She had to tear her eyes from him as a lump grew in her throat.

"Good luck out there Alleycat." He said, some of his usual cockiness returning to him. She forced herself through the threshold into the hallway. "Give 'em hell!" He called out after her. She glanced back and mumbled, "Always do."

* * *

Bethany chewed on her lip, she focused on the hallway her sister disappeared down a few minutes ago, or was it seconds? The alarm was still blaring but by now even that couldn't keep her from feeling the heavy silence in the halls. Maybe it was a good thing they hadn't run into much opposition yet. Maybe this would be easy. She rolled her shoulders and tried to loosen her tense posture. It's not like Alex couldn't handle a few radroaches, there were very few things Alex _couldn't_ handle. But multiple armed security guards was probably one of those things. They'd been lucky so far, but staying here in the living quarters for so long was bound to get them caught. They were still too deep in the Vault. The strap of her bag was digging painfully into her shoulder so she shrugged it off and set in on the ground beside her.

Her head snapped to the right at a muffled noise. She took a tentative step forward and squinted. There was a shadow moving along the wall from around the corner. She turned her body and aimed the pistol at the corner trying to recall what her father had taught her during shooting lessons. It had been ages since she fired a gun, and never a real gun, but hopefully the basics translated well. She was so tense her finger was just twitching on the trigger.

Slowly a man in security armor moved from around the corner, everything about him was cautious, that is until he laid eyes on her. Security Chief Hannon immediately raised his pistol and his body language said only one thing; aggression. "There you are."

"Stop!" She called out fearfully. "I don't want to hurt you." Her voice was shaking almost as badly as her hands. She heard him snort derisively as he began to take aim advancing on her. "First your sister, now your father. Your whole family is trouble, the vault will be better off without you." She faltered and stepped back. He was only a few yards away now, if he fired he'd kill her.

"Stop, stop, stop!" She cried as he started to squeeze the trigger. She stumbled backwards and tripped over her bag. She squeezed off a few rounds as she fell and he grunted and his body collapsed. Alex sprinted from around the corner and stopped short when she caught sight of them.

"I- I didn't mean to." Bethany whispered. Her legs were still tangled in her bag and her hands were shaking so badly now that it was a miracle that she didn't drop the gun completely. Alex looked and Chief Hannon and moved towards her slowly removing the gun from her hand. Alex was crouched in front of her, saying something but she couldn't focus. She just stared at her hands as they started to blur. She just killed a person, someone they knew. She'd treated Chief Hannon at the clinic before. His son had a crush on her. She didn't mean to kill him, but he wouldn't stop. He wouldn't stop. _He wouldn't stop._

"Listen to me!" Alex said forcefully, shaking her. Bethany locked eyes with her sister.

"You had to, okay? You had to kill him or he would have killed you." Alex stared at her imploringly.

"I had to." Bethany said slowly, the words heavy on her tongue.

"You had to." Alex affirmed. She squeezed Bethany's shoulder before walking over to him. It. The body. Bethany squirmed and tried not to look at what she was doing. "It was quick." Alex stated. She came back with his vest and helmet. She tried to place the helmet on Bethany's head but she flailed knocking it out of her hand.

"What do you think you're doing?! It's covered in blood!" Bethany recoiled. Alex picked it up and scowled shoving it down on her obscuring her view temporarily.

"It's not like you've never seen blood before, and besides it's a hell of a lot better than you being full of bullet holes. Now put this on and let's get out of here." She grabbed her by the arm helping her to her feet and handing her the vest. It was too big, and she had to focus on not vomiting, but she supposed it was better than nothing. She carefully stepped over his body as she tightened the last buckle, his eyes were closed, and she wondered if Alex had done that. She had to jog to catch up with her sister. With her head back in the right place she noticed what Alex was wearing. It looked like she finally got her Tunnel Snake jacket.

She was beginning to resent the sheer number of turns there were in the vault. Alex stopped suddenly in front of her, backing up raising her hands up. Bethany spotted another officer, gun raised, just beyond her. She couldn't make out his face under the visor from this distance. Bethany cursed herself for letting Alex tuck their only gun into her bag. They were all impossibly still for what felt like an eternity before he relented, lowering his gun and pushing up his visor. _Officer Gomez,_ which certainly explained why he didn't shoot Alex on sight.

"You're lucky it was me who found you." He said. Officer Gomez stepped aside and gestured them down the hallway. "Go on." Alex nodded and they jogged past him. Bethany silently thanked him with her eyes. Near the end of the hall Alex turned back and called out, "Tell Freddie I said-"

"I'll tell him you said goodbye." He interrupted her, "Now go and don't make me regret this."

* * *

"Wait!" Bethany yelled veering down a hallway Alex just passed.

Alex started, "Why are we going this way? It's quicker if we-" Bethany waved off her question.

"There are some things we need to get from the clinic." Alex didn't protest so Bethany continued moving. They rounded yet another corner and stumbled across Andy, the resident Mr. Handy, torching radroaches. She didn't know he had that function. They watched him for a moment and when the last critter was a crisp he saluted them, "Good evening Madams." The clinic door slid open and Andy puttered off through it. Stanley stepped out and relief washed his face. Alex darted towards him engulfing him in a hug.

"Glad to see you're okay kiddo." He said ruffling her hair, nodding at Bethany. Bethany bristled at the affection between the two. Since she'd been assigned to maintenance Stanley had been filling the role of father figure for Alex. She knew Alex didn't mean it as a betrayal, but it still stung like one.

Bethany walked around them giving them a wide berth to survey the clinic. It was a mess, tables and gurneys were turned over and her dad's desk has all the drawers open. She'd only seen the clinic like this once before; when Alex was arrested. She snatched the Vault Boy bobble head off the desk and stuffed it into her bag. The picture frame on his desk was notably empty. The photo was of the three of them, on her and Alex's tenth birthday. She could picture it now, the two of them standing on either side of their father, Bethany grinning triumphantly while Alex pouted because she was a crappy shot. She was glad they hadn't been able to trash that bit at least.

Bethany turned her focus to the computer in front of her. She plugged a cord from her dad's computer into her pip-boy, she typed a few keys bypassing the security as she'd done a million times before and hit 'download'. Now she'd have all his records, and hopefully some answers.

Being in the clinic made her feel steadier, and in control again. This was her home and they couldn't take that away from her. She groped around the underside of the desk until her fingers closed around sharp metal edges. At least whoever ransacked the place had been too stupid to look under the desk. She yanked the key out of the tape and went to the cabinets on the far side of the room.

She looked through the shelves grabbing syringes and tins, stuffing them into her bag. Bethany reached her hand towards the back of the shelf. "Come on, I know you're here," she muttered. "A ha!" She exclaimed her hand landing on the edges of a metal box. She pulled it off the shelf and opened it ignoring the dust now coating her hands. Just like she'd guessed, two vials were missing.

"What's that?" Alex inquired leaning over her shoulder to peak at the case in her hands. Bethany ignored her question tucking two small brown vials into her pocket. Her eyes locked onto the wall where a poster of the circulatory system used to sit. Alex followed her gaze.

"Since when is there a safe in here?" Alex asked. Bethany rushed forward and peered into the safe, its door left open haphazardly. Only dust occupied it now.

"I don't know." She muttered.

"It seems like there's a lot we didn't know." Alex said flatly.

Bethany turned around, giving the clinic one last visual sweep. She turned and left not allowing herself to look back.

* * *

Alex stood rigid, her ear pressed firmly against the Atrium door. During any other day the Atrium was the busiest part of the vault. Bethany stepped closer whispering, "What is it?"

"I hear voices, not sure who." Alex frowned moving away from the door. Bethany reached out towards the keypad and paused waiting for Alex, she nodded. Bethany hit the button on the keypad as Alex raised her bat. The door wooshed open and beyond it stood Tom and Mary Holden. "Come on, now's our only chance!" Tom shouted to Mary as he bolted, running across the ground floor of the Atrium. The second he was even with the threshold of the hall to main entrance his body erupted with blood and he collapsed. Bethany clamped a hand over her mouth smothering a scream.

"Tom!" Mary wailed running out after him. Bethany lurched forward to stop her but Mary's body sprayed blood as bullets tore through her, she fell just short of her husband. Bethany looked frantically at Alex, whose face was grim. On the other side of the Atrium was the way to the Overseer's office, normally it was a short walk across the ground floor to the stair case, but today it stretched out as far as an ocean. The door to where they needed to go had a set of lockers wedged in it keeping it open, but not for long. That door was putting nearly a ton of pressure on the lockers and they were already groaning under the weight.

Alex pulled something from her bag and threw it out in front of the hallway. Bullets shredded the vault suit to scraps before it even reached the ground. Bethany gulped and stepped back involuntarily, "No, there has to be another way. We're not going to make it." She felt any small amount of hope slipping right through her grasp like sand. Alex took her bag off her shoulder and slid it across the floor, there was a small burst of bullets the bag stopped a few feet in front of the lockers.

"C'mere." Alex murmured. She took the bag off Bethany's shoulders and did the same with it. "Alright," she said pressing the gun heavy with a new clip into Bethany's hand, "You are going to fire into the hallway and were going to run across as fast as we can." Bethany wasn't ready, she couldn't do it, but Alex didn't care. She just started running.

Bethany darted out after her opening fire down the hallway. She fired a quick burst and slammed into Alex on the other side. Alex righted herself with ease and picked up her own bag and heaved Bethany's over to her. Bethany didn't have time to appreciate their victory as she heard shouts from behind them. Bethany charged forward ducking her head slightly to get under the door. As she ascended the stairs she realized Alex wasn't behind her. She turned around as Alex gave the lockers a hard kick, they didn't budge. She tried again harder and they screeched in protest moving only an inch or so. Alex gave the lockers one last kick throwing her weight into it and the lockers launched out from under the door, which closed heavily in time for it to spare Alex the peppering of bullets currently assaulting it.

* * *

Alex crept along the wall, she could hear muffled voices coming from the jail. She motioned for Bethany to stop behind her. Alex paused and listened. "I told you I don't know anything!" Amata cried. Alex cocked her head to the side trying to make out the words. "I don't know what she has to do with any of this anyway, please stop!" Amata wailed. A resounding smack echoed out into the hallway. Her eyes went wide. _Shit._ Bethany dashed forward, Alex tried to grab Bethany to keep her from rushing in, but she'd anticipated her grasping hand and managed to dodge it. The door opened automatically and Alex scrambled after her. Bethany stood perched in the doorway gun trained on Officer Mack and the Overseer. Amata sat in a chair across from them, her cheek bright red and tear stained.

"I hope you're here to turn yourself in, young lady, you're already in enough trouble as it is. Oh and look, your criminal sister is here too, that saves me the trouble of tracking her down." The Overseer drawled. He sounded calm and in control, despite the fact that he was staring down the business end of a death machine. Officer Mack sneered at Alex where she stood close behind Bethany. Her hackles raised and she wanted nothing more than to spit in his face.

"Come on Amata." Bethany growled. He voice was stone but her hands trembled as she and the Overseer locked gazes.

"Thank you." Amata breathed in relief jumping up from the chair rushing over to them. She ducked behind Bethany next to Alex.

"Give me the password to the secret passage." Alex demanded moving forward slighting.

"Oh sure, can I get you anything else while you're here?" The Overseer stated his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I'd rather die than see the safety of the vault compromised again."

"Pretty words from a murderer." Alex spat. She grabbed the pistol from her sister's hand and yanked Amata in front of her by her ponytail. She elbowed Bethany aside as Officer Mack lunged at her. He stopped short when she pressed the barrel hard against Amata's throat. Bethany stood still her mouth open in shock.

"You wouldn't dare." The Overseer gasped.

Alex yanked Amata's hair and she whimpered against the metal. The Overseer stared hard at her and Amata sobbed. His shoulders slumped. Relief flooded Alex.

"The password is 'Amata'." He gritted out slowly, hate permeating every syllable.

"That's all I wanted." Alex assured. "But if you're lying, her blood is on your hands." She tossed Amata behind her into the hallway with Bethany and jumped back shooting out the keypad. "That should hold them." she stated turning to look at her companions. She was met with a hard glare from Bethany.

"He- he almost let you shoot me." Amata stammered out, as Bethany helped her to her feet.

"I wouldn't have done it." Alex offered.

Amata scoffed bitterly and turned away. "Let's just go, that door won't keep them for long." Officer Mack banged hard on the window startling the three of them. Alex handed the gun back to Bethany who tucked it into her belt.

They jogged over to the door to the Overseer's office and Amata opened the door for them. Amata hastily retreated into her apartment. Alex took point and she scanned the room for anything useful. "Oh my god." Bethany gasped out, she rushed forward and collapsed onto her knees in front of a prone figure on the ground. Alex peered around her. His face was a bloody and bruised mess and his glasses had been smashed. Bethany hesitantly reached her hands out but yanked them back and covered her face. Alex crouched next to him. She felt her chest tighten. She pulled his glassed off and tucked them into her bag, he was barely recognizable.

"They didn't even move him." Bethany choked out. She looked up from her hands, her eyes were red and her cheeks were streaked with mascara and tears. They needed out of there. She patted him down gently careful to keep from touching the quickly congealing puddle of blood beneath him. She felt a palm sized square in his lab-coat pocket and she snatched it out turning it over in her hands. What is it?" Bethany asked leaning it to get a better look.

"Nothing." Alex said slipping it into her bag as she got to her feet. A loud BANG came from the door startling Bethany. "Come on, we need to go." Alex said helping Bethany scramble to her feet. Amata reappeared, her eyes in a similar state to Bethany's.

"Go, I unlocked my dad's office for you. I'll hold them back as long as I can, I'll try to meet you at the entrance if I can." She said. Alex grabbed Bethany's arm and guided her through the waiting room and into the Overseer's private office.

"Raid those lockers and I'll try and get this 'secret tunnel' open." Alex commanded. Bethany sniffed and nodded. Alex searched the desk throwing papers out of her way. Not finding anything useful she headed to the terminal. She tapped out A-M-A-T-A and the terminal pinged in response. She skimmed the screen and found what she was looking for. She hit a key and the room was filled with noise.

The desk rose up and revealed a staircase down into the dark. "Let's go." Alex said.

"Wait what's this? 'Scouting reports'?" Bethany questioned her face illuminated green from the terminal.

"Doesn't matter now." Alex said grabbing her sister away from the terminal and pushing her in front of her. The descended the steps together and Bethany hit the button at the bottom closing the office above them.

* * *

The sirens echoed off the walls of the dark cave as the heavy door began sliding into place. Amata stood alone at the top of the steps and Bethany stared back at her helplessly. When the door began closing the remailing foot of space the doors behind Amata sprung open and she was grabbed by vault security officers. The sounds of Amata's struggle filled the cave now too. "Amata!" Bethany cried out springing forward but something grabbed the back of her vault jumpsuit throwing her to the ground hard.

The vault door closed with a hiss effectively sealing her off from everything she had ever known or loved. "No!" Bethany wailed as she wrenched herself free from her sister's grasp. She pounded on the door calling out Amata's name until her fists were sore and bruised. She turned and slid down against the vault door. The cave was now deathly silent. She stared straight forward and a horribly buzzing sound filled her ears. Gone. All of it. Everything. She started gasping for air and her vision blurred. Why would he just leave them like that? Whatever he was doing she could have helped him. Did he not trust her enough? So many secrets. He must have had his reasons.

She sniffed and looked at her Pip-boy. "Do you think I could send a message to Amata?"

Alex shook her head and stared straight ahead. "No, the vault has a signal jammer that keeps from messages going in or out of the vault, I always thought it was weird that…" Bethany stopped listening and slumped back against the vault door.

Her eyes snapped open. She toggled through her Pip-Boy menu over to DATA. She skimmed the files she pulled from her dad's computer and her heart deflated when she realized they were just medical records. Bethany kicked her foot out in frustration and accidentally slammed it into Alex. Alex grunted and glared at her. Bethany's eyes lit up with realization.

"What did you take from Jonas?" Bethany demanded. Alex looked up and squinted at her through the gloom.

"What?" She blinked slowly.

Bethany lurched forward and dragged Alex's bag in front of her. She rifled through the pockets frantically and began throwing small items out until she had the small grey square in her hands. Alex, who had been angrily stuffing everything she threw out of the bag back into it, sat up suddenly alert. Bethany inserted the tape into the slot on the top of her Pipboy and the speakers crackled to life. Her heart gave a painful jerk at the sound of her father's voice.

"Hold on Jonas, I need to record this first.

I don't really know how to tell you two this. I hope you'll understand, but I know you might be angry. I thought about it for a long time, but in the end I decided it was best for you not to know. Even you Bethany. I know that if I told you, you would insist on coming with me, and I can't have that. So many things could have gone wrong, and there's really no telling how the Overseer will react when he finds out. It's best if he can blame everything on me. Obviously, you already know that I'm gone. It was something I needed to do. You are adults now. You have each other, and I know that you can make it on your own. Maybe someday, things will change and we can see each other again. I can't tell you why I left or where I'm going. I don't want you to follow me. God knows life in the Vault isn't perfect, but at least you'll be safe. Just knowing that will be enough to keep me going. Alexandra, I know we haven't seen eye to eye much lately, but know that my leaving had nothing to do with you. Take care of your sister. You two may be all the other has someday."

"Don't mean to rush you, Doc, but I'd feel better if we got this over with." Jonas spoke. Bethany clapped her hand over her mouth.

"Okay. Go ahead. Goodbye. I love you." Their father finished. The cave was dead silent. Then Alex began giggling. The laughter sounded unnatural and it burbled out of her throat uncontrolled. She began laughing fully and then it turned into bizarre strangled sounding noises while rocking back and forth. Alex stopped and gasped for air and Bethany stared at her, unmoving. Alex lunged and grabbed the tape out of Bethany's Pipboy and hurled it against the rock walls and it broke into pieces on impact.

Bethany jumped to her feet and slapped Alex hard across the face. "What is wrong with you?! That could be all we have left of him! Now how are we supposed to go after him?"

Alex got to her feet unfazed, "Don't you get it? He left us. If he wanted anything to do with us he would have brought us with him." Alex began pacing and rubbed at her cheek absently. The fire in Bethany's gut settled, replaced by something far colder and heavier. Her hand still stung.

"We have to do something." Bethany said meekly. "Don't you want to know why?" Alex stopped pacing and looked at her. She looked away and went over to pick up the pieces of the tape. She approached slowly and placed the pieces into Bethany's hand. She reflexively closed her hand around it. The hard edges biting into her skin.

"Let's go then." Alex sighed. Alex slung her bag over her shoulder and grabbed her bat in two hands. Bethany stared at her for a moment before pulling the two brown vials out of her own bag. She ripped open a plastic package and dropped it on the ground. She took the new needle and plunged it into the vial pulling the clear liquid into it.

"Give me your arm." She commanded and Alex rolled up her sleeve and held her arm out towards her wordlessly. "It's a vaccine, sort of." She said as she depressed the plunger into her sister's vein. "Dad told me about them a long time ago." She explained, "It's supposed to inoculate us against all the potential illnesses we might encounter upon exiting the vault."

Alex rolled her sleeve back down as Bethany prepared a new syringe for herself. "So we were supposed to leave eventually." Alex noted.

Bethany winced as she pulled the needle back out. She dropped it on the ground as well. "I think we all were."

"Alright." Alex grabbed her bat again and Bethany pulled her bag onto her shoulder. The syringe crunched under her boot as they blindly made their way down through the dark passage way. A strange whistling was carried on the air and a light breeze teases her hair from its braid. "There!" Alex said rounding a corner. Up ahead was what looked like an old wooden door will light pouring through the cracks. They scrambled over loose rocks. Alex gripped the rusty latch on the door and squinted against the light.

"One more thing." Alex said. Bethany was vibrating with anticipation and her heart was in her throat. Alex reached over and shoved some sunglasses onto Bethany's face. Right, they're eyes would need time to adjust to the light in the surface. Bethany reached up and flipped the visor of her helmet back down. Now her vision was almost completely black.

"On three?" Bethany breathed.

Alex nodded pulling her welding visor down over her face. "One."

"Two…" Bethany braced herself.

"Three!" Alex flung the door open and they were blinded by light.

* * *

 **So I finally got around to editing out all the grammar mistakes and repeat sentences. If you like the story or you have critique, please leave a review.**


	2. Night and Day

**I don't have a beta so if you notice any typos or sentences that are unclear please let me know. I own nothing buy my own characters.**

* * *

 **Night and Day**

Alex grunted and threw her arm over her watering eyes. She felt the sun warm her skin and wind tugging gently at her clothes. She lowered her arm and breathed deeply, the smell of earth filled her nostrils and she laughed. Her heart was running a marathon and she grinned over at her sister. Bethany couldn't see Alex's smile under her welding mask but her face was equally full of wonder. Bethany tilted her head back and stood very still. Alex followed suit and looked up into the gaping maw of the outside world.

The light green sky stretched on further than Alex could comprehend and she felt herself being drawn into its vast emptiness. She felt a kind of weightlessness, like if she wasn't careful how she moved she might fall right off the earth itself. Bethany lurched over and puked splattered their boots.

"Uhg." Bethany groaned. Alex rubbed her back while she spit trying to get the taste out of her mouth. Something screeched and both twins jumped into a crouch looking frantically around them for the source of the noise. Four black shapes took off from a nearby rock into the sky.

"Birds." Alex murmured incredulously. She stood and looked at their surroundings for the first time. They were up on some kind of hill, the cave that lead home nestled into the rocks behind them. The hill overlooked a road, and in the distance just beyond another him were strange spikes jutting out of the earth. She took a cautious step forward and gripped her bat tightly in both hands. She stepped forward to the ledge and wiped the dust and grime off the sign then transferring it to her pant leg. 'Something Overlook.'

Bethany walked up and the tip of her boot sent a few rocks tumbling over the ledge. "Look, over there." She said pointing at the spikey things, "I think those are buildings. Or what's left of them." Alex squinted and she could just barely make out a few intact roofs. "Buildings mean people right?" Bethany offered, her brows furrowed. That could be either good, or terrible if there was any truth to the scary stories the vault kids used to tell each other.

The girls carefully picked their way down the sloped toward the cracked road below them. Bethany slipped and grabbed onto Alex's arm to steady herself. The street felt strange under Alex's boots, it looked hard, but it didn't feel as hard as she though it would. Not like metal.

Bethany grabbed onto Alex's arm and they walked down the road at an agonizingly slow pace. It was so quiet. Alex was used to sound, the sound of people talking, water rushing through pipes, the sound of life. Out here there was none of that.

They rounded the hill and suddenly found themselves staring down a neighborhood street. Blackened frames lined the street where houses used to stand. "It's empty." Bethany said sounding disappointed. Alex felt relieved. She wasn't looking forward to running into the vicious monsters that existed outside the vault, twice as big as any man with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. They crept down the street looking around for, well, anything. "We should look in the houses for signs of dad." Bethany said in a hushed voice. The dead silence weighed heavily on them.

Alex gave a curt nod and she went to the left while Bethany went off to the right. Alex was careful to make sure she would still have a direct line of sight to her sister. Alex looked at the house in front of her. She could see how it might have looked like the houses in the movies, once upon a time. She could see clearly into the house which was barely more than four corners and half a roof. She pried the rusted mailbox open and tried to make out the fade letters on the ancient envelope. To the Gomez family from Vault Tec.

"What's that?" Bethany asked as she approached from behind her. Alex passed it back to her and she looked down the road at the other houses. Bethany opened the envelope and skimmed the page. "It has to be a coincidence right?"

Alex walked down the street and Bethany followed closely behind. Most of the houses were empty with nothing useful in them. Alex didn't bother to open any more mailboxes, but the glinting of metal from a pile of rubble in one of the houses caught her eye. It was at the end of the street across from some weird metal structure with words _Red Rocket_ on it. Alex jumped over debris and knelt in front if the old safe. She yanked on the handle but the door stayed firmly in place. "Fuck." She muttered.

"Here." Bethany said handing the BB gun to Alex. Alex moved out of her way and watched her sister pull a bobby pin out of her hair and straighten it out. "Do you have a screw driver; flat head?" She asked. Alex rummaged through her bag and pulled the tool out placing it gently in her sister's hand. Bethany bit the plastic ends off the bobby pin and inserted it into the lock. She leaned in closely and wiggled the bobby pin around turning the screw driver this way and that. The lock clicked and Bethany grinned from beneath her visor.

"Damn," Alex said appreciatively, "Where did you learn you learn to do that?" Bethany pulled open the safe and started to pull items out.

"Amata taught me, I'm surprised you don't know how to." Bethany pulled out a small box and a sack, each of them rattled.

"Butch always did it, who's the delinquent now?" Alex grinned down at her sister but Bethany didn't respond. She was looking inside the pouch.

Alex crouched and took it from her hands. "Maybe they were collectors?" Alex offered.

"At least the bullets are useful." Bethany sighed and grabbed up the small box. "Just leave the bottle caps, we need to conserve space." Alex shrugged and tossed the bag back into the safe and slammed the door closed. Alex froze halfway between crouching and standing.

"Do you hear that?" Alex hissed. Bethany tilted her head straining to listen. Her mouth popped open.

"Is that _music_?" Bethany gaped.

Alex crept out of the house Bethany close on her heels and peered around the corner down the street. Sure enough a soccer ball sized sphere was bobbing around towards then to a chipper little tune. It didn't _look_ dangerous. Alex stood up and walk out into the street. Bethany scrambled after her and stood close behind her. As it got closer Alex could make out that it was some kind of robot.

"It's kind of cute." Bethany said stepping out from behind Alex to get a better look. The girls stood perfectly still as it approached. "Hi there." Bethany said offering a small wave. The flying robot just kept puttering along and Alex gripped her bat a little more tightly. Suddenly a voice crackles out of the speaker on the front.

"God bless-" Alex screamed and swung her bat at the thing as hard as she could. She knocked it out of the air and slammed it against the asphalt. The speaker sputtered then died as sparks flew out of it.

"What was that for?" Bethany asked her eyes wide.

"Sorry," Alex started sheepishly, "I panicked."

"Well its dead now." Bethany said kicking its dented carcass with the edge of her boot. "Which way should we go?" She asked looking down the street where the robot came from. "There's a big building that direction we could check out, and a few smaller houses, maybe Dad set up down there."

"Nah." Alex said. "I doubt he left the vault to come play house two feet from the vault. Besides, there's a Megaton that way." Alex said gesturing in the opposite direction.

"What? What's a Megaton?" Bethany asked wrinkling her nose. Alex pointed behind Bethany with her bat at the sign she spied earlier. It was just a large piece of metal with the word 'Megaton' painted on it in yellow, but it was the closest thing to 'new' they'd seen since they left the vault.

"Dunno. But since there's a sign and an arrow pointing to it I bet its something you'd want to head towards." Bethany looked at it for a second and looked back down the road.

"Okay." She said.

* * *

Bethany panted and swiped at the bead of sweat dripping down from her temple. Instead of touching her face she ended up smacking her visor. She grunted and switched her bag to her other shoulder. The sun was baking her in her jumpsuit and security armor, but Alex hadn't slowed since they left the little town behind them.

Bethany glanced back at the sun behind her, it was closer to the horizon now. Her suspicions had been confirmed. "The sun is going down." She called out to Alex. Alex turned around jogging backwards and looked at the sun for herself.

"Huh." She said, and turned back around.

The idea of nighttime terrified Bethany, she couldn't imagine complete darkness, in the vault there was always light from somewhere. Still, this pace was killing her. "Do you think maybe we could slow down a little?" She said to her sisters back. Her eyes fixed on the snake logo staring back at her.

"We don't want to be out here when it gets dark, we'd be totally exposed." Was Alex's answer. "Besides this is the slowest we can go without walking."

Bethany huffed. She had no idea how Alex could enjoy actually _running_ every day. "Remind me to thank you for doing all my exercise for me back home."

"I'm starting to think maybe I shouldn't have." She sounded grim, but Bethany could hear the slight smile on her lips. Bethany fixed her eyes on the horizon and focused on regulating her breathing, the stitch in her side was killing her. She glanced at her Pipboy and fiddled with the dials to look at the map. It only showed where all the pre-war roads and structures were and she didn't see anything directly ahead. She slammed into Alex's back and let out a "Oof!"

Bethany glanced up at whatever was holding her sister's attention. A massive metal mountain had appeared in front of them while she was staring at her Pipboy. "I'm guessing _that_ is a Megaton." Alex said. "C'mon." She waved and started jogging. Bethany followed closely behind her. She grabbed the pistol out of her belt. It was empty, but it still made her feel safer having it in her hands.

As they neared the giant metal structure they were greeted by a hollow metallic voice. "Greetings partners. Welcome to Megaton, friendliest town around." The robot was vaguely humanoid and standing in front of Megaton. Bethany highly doubted the truth if it's statement.

"How do we get in?" Alex wondered aloud. Just then a horrible metal scraping on metal noise filled the air. Alex jumped back putting herself in front of Bethany. The metal wall in front of them began raising. Bethany tilted her head back and she spied what looked like a person perched at the top of the wall. She waved her hand in thanks. Behind the raised doors was another set of doors, but these ones looks easy enough to open. Bethany walked past Alex who tailed her with her bat raised glancing all around.

Bethany stopped in front of the big doors and scratched her chin. "There isn't a button on this side." She reached her hand out to knock but the door swung out before she made contact. A dirt covered man looked at her and stepped back opening the door wide enough for them to walk through. She walked past him clutching her pistol tightly.

"Jesus." Alex gaped. It was a whole city built in a crater. Most of the city was built on spindly metal stilts in the side of the crater and down the path in front of them it looked like there were buildings down in the base of the crater. They looked like funny little metal boxes stacked on top of each other unevenly. A man with a cowboy hat walked up the path. He was dark skinned, and had a full bushy beard. She backed up at his approach and she bumped into Alex.

"Well I'll be damned, more vault dwellers. I haven't seen one of those ol' vault suits in ages." He said is a surprisingly intelligible voice. Her ears pricked up at his words.

"Did you say another?" She stepped forward eagerly.

Alex snickered in Bethany's ear. "Nice hat calamity Jane."

"Name's Lucas Simms, town sheriff. Mayor too when the need arises." He extended his hand out towards her expectantly. Either he was ignoring Alex or he didn't hear her. Bethany tucked her pistol back into her belt and reached out and shook it like she'd seen in the movies, his hand was warm he held hers firmly. She retracted her hand as quickly as he would allow and she discretely wiped it on her pants.

"What brings you to our town?" He asked.

"You've seen others? You must have seen our dad!" she exclaimed. He raised his eyebrows.

"I'm not sure, what does he look like?" He said scratching his beard trying to recall.

"Middle aged white guy, maybe wearing a vault suit." Alex volunteered.

"Nope sorry. I've got enough fires to put out around town that I don't have time to keep tabs on every visitor. Try asking around town."

"Oh." Bethany felt herself physically deflate. She looked down and her eyes stung. She'd really thought they'd found him. Alex reached out and grabbed her arm reassuringly.

"That's the best you can do?" Alex demanded. The welding mask muffled her voice but her tone was still biting. Bethany wouldn't have dared talk that way to a potentially murderous and armed wastelander.

The man was taken back by her tone. He glanced at Bethany, "You could try Moriarty's Saloon up in the south end of town. Use the catwalks." He said pointing up at the rickety metal walkways. "Follow the signs."

"Thank you." Bethany said and he tipped his hat at her.

"Stay out of trouble." He called out after them as they made their way down into the crater.

* * *

Gob banged on the radio as nothing but static trickled out of the speakers. "Aggh! Come on you piece of junk. Every day it's the same damn thing..." He muttered. Nova sighed from her perch on the other side of the room.

"I told you Gob, it's the station not the radio. The signal's been down for days." She took a long drag from her cigarette and Gob watched her tilt her head back as she exhaled. He sighed and turned the radio off. The door to Moriarty's opened.

"-kind of backwards ass idiot builds a town around an active bomb?!" A low female voice reached Gobs ears. Two backlit figures entered the bar. Gob could see all the telltale signs of a freshly out-of-the-vault dweller. The blue jumpsuits without a spec of dirt on them. The weird face coverings. He pretended to wipe down the bar while he observed them. At least one of them had to be a woman, although it was hard to tell with their get-up, and they were both about the same height.

The one in welders mask flipped it up and looked around the room with a scowl. She was probably the one that was speaking. The one closest to him pulled off their helmet and sunglasses and Gob gaped. They looked the same, exactly the same.

"Woah!" She said and rushed to the bar nearly setting her helmet down on his hand. Gob reeled as she stuck her face right in his. Her skin was a soft brown color, and her dark hair was plastered flat against her hard with sweat. Dark makeup was smudged around her eyes making them look bruised.

"Sorry!" She started, "I've just never-"

"What the fuck are you?" The other one asked once her eyes landed on him.

"What's the problem? You never seen a ghoul before?" he said narrowing his eyes her.

"No." "What's a ghoul?" they asked speaking over eachother.

"Man you really are green." He mumbled.

"My name is Bethany, and this is my sister Alex." The nicer one said pointing to the rude one. The rude one just looked him directly in the eyes, but the nice one stared at him openly, her eyes trailing down his body. He felt the need to check that he remembered to put on pants today.

"I mean I always knew intense levels of radiation could affect the human body…" The nice one, Bethany, trailed off. "Is your whole body like this?" She asked leaning across the bar examining his face eagerly.

"Er-" He said.

"Bethany. Focus." The other one said.

"Oh right." Bethany said shaking her head. Gob glanced at the other one called Alex grateful that he didn't have to answer the question. "We're looking for our father, he doesn't look like us, he's white, has light brown hair, and he's tall." Her teeth peeked out when she spoke, they were blindingly white.

"He has a beard." Alex added. Gob had seen a guy come through just this morning. He went into the back room with Moriarty and they talked for a while Gob tried to eavesdrop. Then he took off and Moriarty left town shortly afterward talking about his next big payday. He hadn't officially left Gob in charge, but Gob knew that if he didn't keep the bar open he'd beat him senseless when he got back.

Bethany looked at him expectantly. Hope colored her features making her look impossibly young. She'd need a better poker face if she ever hoped to make it out here. "I.." he trailed off. Her face fell immediately and Alex stepped closer, her face was even easier to read, anger, suspicion, impatience. At least those were common enough in the wasteland. It gave her a tougher aura than her sister, but it wasn't enough. The wasteland was going to eat her up too.

"I did see a guy like that. James was his name I think?" he offered.

"Yes that's him! What did he say? Where did he go?" Gob winced, Bethany looked seconds from climbing over the counter. Nova shook her head, she'd been watching the entire interaction. That little tidbit was going to cost him. But Bethany's smile was so big it barely fit her face. The other one was leaning in now too. His heart lodged itself in his throat.

"I don't know, you'll have to talk to Moriarty." He said picking up a glass. He avoided looking directly either of them.

"Okay." Alex said. She seemed to speak in a lower voice, flatter too. "Where can I find him?"

"Left this morning. Don't know when he'll be back." He scrubbed at a spot on the glass. They were quiet for a minute and he ventured a glance at them. They were facing each other and Alex's hands were planted firmly on Bethany's shoulders. They were just looking at each other. For a brief moment Alex's face was soft, they almost looked like the same person. "Anything else I can get you?" He said setting the glass back underneath the counter.

Bethany shrugged out of her sister's grasp and turned to Gob. "No, that's all." He nodded and busied himself with wiping down the counter again. "Thank you." She said touching his arm forcing him to look into her eyes. They lingered briefly against his ruined skin, and then in a second they were gone. Stared down at the counter until the saloon door opened and closed behind them. Gob finally felt safe enough to breathe. He rubbed his arm where her fingers had rested. He could still feel their fleeting warmth.

"There's no fucking way zombie." Jericho said slamming his empty glass down on the bar.  
Gob pretended not to notice and went back to work.

* * *

"Well that was a bunch of booshwash." Alex said biting her thumbnail and looking over the railing at the bomb and the little people scampering around like radroaches in the light. The sky was darker and pink light was reflecting off the metal rooftops back at them. It was totally surreal; the sky changing color. And despite her original apprehension it was kind of thrilling standing on a metal platform high above the town. If she leaned over a little too far she could fall to her death.

"It's not booshwash, we know he was here, and that someone knows where he was going." Bethany leaned on the railing and it groaned. She jumped back and opted to lean against the wall of the Saloon instead. "I feel like Gob knew more he wasn't telling us. I think he was afraid."

Alex scoffed and turned her head to look at her sister, "Him? Afraid?"

"You couldn't tell? He wouldn't even look at me. And he clammed up the second I asked a real question." Bethany chewed on her lip.

"Maybe he just though you were ugly." Alex laughed. Bethany glared at her.

"I think he's afraid of that Moriarty guy. We're going to need to watch out for him." Bethany locked eyes with Alex. Alex immediately sobered and pushed off from the railing nodding. "In the meantime let's ask around on the ground, it looks like there's a lot of people down there."

Alex led the way down the catwalks stomping the whole way. She liked the way she could feel the vibrations of her footsteps on the thin metal. Bethany gripped the railing the whole way stepping as lightly as humanly possible. Bethany kept glancing up at the sky as it darkened. Alex agreed, it was kind of unnerving watching the shadows move and change shape. It was just dark enough now that they didn't need their protective eyewear. The sun had finally disappeared over the walls of Megaton, but she could track its movement from the painful orange glow just on the horizon.

She gave a wide berth to the massive atomic death machine sitting dead in the middle of town. There was a practically glowing puddle of filthy water around its base. Her Pipboy clicked rapidly when she'd gotten too close, so she figured the guy who was standing right in the water screaming at the bomb was positively tingly.

Alex eyes the two-headed monstrosity on the other side of the bomb. It _might_ have been a cow. She wondered if it looked like that because of the radiation like Gob. Or maybe it was just inbreeding. Shoes pounded on the dirt from somewhere behind her and she turned just in time to see a scrawny guy barreling right for her. He grabbed a hold of her bag and yanked it off her. The momentum sent Alex tumbling into the dirt. She manages to roll through and she took off after him the second her feet were under her. He was fast, but she was faster.

She grabbed onto the handle of the bag and he swung around to face her. He pulled hard to wrench it free and the canvas strap cut into her skin. She dug her heels in and ducked a clumsy swing. She held tightly to the bag and used it to stabilize her as she pivoted on her standing leg, her right leg flying through the air to smash her heel into the side of his head. The straps twisted around her hands as she turned and finally he let go. He stumbled and she threw the bag down, her fist connected with his nose with a resounding crack. Blood sprayed her and he went down.

She breathed hard and the man groaned on the ground cradling his nose. Adrenaline was coursing through her veins. "What is _wrong_ with you?" she demanded kicking dirt into his face.

"Alex stop!" Bethany shouted. Alex looked up, the commotion had attracted a crowd. An armed crowd. She backed up throwing her hands in the air.

"He tried to-"

"Fucking bitch." The guy gurgled from the ground.

"You want me to finish him off?" A tough looking woman asked from her left, she cocked her gun.

"What?" Alex balked. She looked around and realized most of the guns were leveled with the guy on the ground.

"'Round here you steal you pay with your life. You want me to finish him?" She asked again taking aim, she looked… eager.

"No, just let him go." Bethany answered hurriedly. The crowd lowered their weapons they all turned back to what they were doing like Alex hadn't just beat a man's face in right in front of them. Alex looked over at Bethany, she looked equally shocked. Alex shook her head and leaned down to pick up her bag.

They approached the bar in front of the 'Brass Lantern' and sat down on the red stools. "Now that's just asking for a knife in the back." A woman drawled. Alex's gaze followed the attempted thief until he finally slunk out of sight behind some metal shacks. She turned around and met eyes with a curvy blonde in a dingy yellow jumpsuit. Alex shrugged.

"Do you really kill everyone who commits a crime?" Bethany asked. "That's barbaric."

"That's justice." The woman countered sharply. "I don't know how they do it where you're from but here we don't waste resources on keeping criminals in jail." Bethany was taken aback and she looked at Alex.

"What about second chances?" Bethany inquired. Alex lowered her gaze.

The woman barked out a laugh. "Now that's good one. You only get one chance. Name's Jenny Stahl, welcome to the Brass lantern. What can I get you?" Bethany looked like she was going to push the issue so Alex jumped in.

"Actually we're looking for information. A man came into town today and we need to find him." The woman sobered and she looked at the girls again, actually looked at them.

"What'd you want with him?" she asked.

"He's our dad, we just need to find him." Bethany replied. Jenny looked from Bethany to Alex and weighed her response carefully.

"I heard talk of someone rolling into town today. Didn't talk to nobody but Moriarty. You girls stay away from him, he and anyone in that bar ain't nothing but trouble."

Alex nodded. Bethany already figured as much. "You sell food here?" Bethany asked. Alex looked over at her and suddenly realized she was starving.

"Among other things, what do you want?" Jenny said propping one hand on her hip.

"Um, what do you have?"

"Ant meat, noodles, mac n' cheese, cram, pork n' beans-" she started naming off things and Alex's mouth watered. She continued, "Brahmin steak if you're feelin' fancy, and radroach meat if you're not."

" _Radroach meat_?" Bethany breathed.

"Mac and cheese for us both." Alex answered for her green looking sister.

"That'll be ten caps." Jenny extended her palm. Bethany and Alex exchanged a look.

"Wait, caps? As in bottle caps?" Bethany clarified.

"Yes. Now this ain't a charity, either pay or get out." Jenny said impatiently.

Alex groaned. "SON OF A-"

* * *

The girls entered the common house just as the sun set completely. Neither said anything to the other as they scoured the building for an empty mattress. The inhabitants watched them the entire time but when either of the girls tried to meet their gaze suddenly they looked anywhere but. They managed to find one lower bunk without a person in it.

"Well this is depressing." Bethany said as she kicked her bag under the bed. She then crawled on top of it and sat towards the head her legs dangling off edge. Alex slid her bag under the bed, her tools rattled together when it slammed against the back wall. Alex crawled into the bed kicking off her boots and took her hair down. She had to rip the hair tie free from the tangles and her scalp throbbed. She lay down resting her head on Bethany's lap.

Bethany began stroking her hair absently like she used to when they were kids and had Alex crawled into her bed because she was upset or scared or just plain didn't feel like being alone. Alex heaved a sigh and the weight of the day's events settled heavily on her. Her eyes watered and she squeezed them shut. It didn't stop the tears from spilling over. She breathed hard and her body was wracked with tremors.

Bethany looked down at her sister crying and it felt like a knife directly in her heart. Bethany gave a hard glare to the wastelanders watching them. It didn't stop them from staring, but one at least had the decency to look guilty.

"You know he went and found me yesterday." Alex murmured. Bethany's eyes snapped back to her sister's face. "I was in line at the commissary and he came up. He apologized for not being around much lately. And he said he loved me." Bethany breathed deeply. That was more that she got. He said goodbye to her when she clocked out of the clinic like it was any other night.

"We're going to be okay." Bethany said firmly. They didn't talk after that. Bethany stroked her sister's hair until she was snoring softly and them Bethany allowed herself to finally break down.

* * *

 **Now that we're through the beginning the action will begin to pick up, in the next chapter, tell me what you guys think.**

 **reviews welcome!**


	3. Organ Grinder's Swing

**I own nothing but my own characters.**

* * *

 **Organ Grinder's Swing**

Grunting. That's what Bethany woke up to. She kept her eyes closed and willed herself to wake up in her bed, back in the vault, where everything was okay. A foul smell invaded her nostrils and she bolted upright hitting her head on the metal frame of the bunk above her. "Ugh." She said swiping at her nose.

"I know, I think somebody died on that mattress." Alex mumbled in between pushups. Her Tunnel Snake jacket was balled up where Bethany's head had just been. She rubbed at her face and she felt the lines and grooves lefts from the folds in the leather. She sighed and swung her feet over planting them firmly on the ground. She watched Alex.

Alex had the top of her vault suit tied around her waist, and her chest was bare save from the damp sports bra. Her back and neck glistened with sweat. Bethany noticed most of the people had already cleared out, the few that were still around talked quietly to each other or watched her sister.

"Actually, I think it's me." Bethany griped.

"In that case," Alex said getting to her feet. Bethany eyed her well define abs enviously. "I asked around and I know where we can clean up."

Bethany jumped to her feet banging her head hard against the metal frame, _again_. Alex smiled.

* * *

"This is it?" Bethany and Alex stood in the middle of a small ten by twelve room, lit only by a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling.

"Yup!" Alex said darting past her into the only stall with a door on it. She heard the latch slide closed and Bethany groaned and dropped her bag. They both brought everything with them, leaving their belongings in the common house felt like asking to be robbed. She could tell those vultures were just waiting for them to let their guard down.

Bethany had to pee so badly she opted for the toilet that had a stall but no door. After she relieved herself she walked back out to Alex who was digging through her bag. "What are you doing?" Alex didn't respond.

"Aha!" She exclaimed pulling two plastic toothbrushes out from one of the inside pockets. Bethany held her hand out and Alex deposited the red one into her hand. "Leave it to you Beth, to think about teeth in the apocalypse."

"Don't pretend you aren't grateful." Bethany countered. She ran the tap and the water that poured out of the faucet into the grimy sink _looked_ clean enough. She hadn't had the foresight to bring toothpaste, but water would be good enough for now; from what she'd seem yesterday oral hygiene wasn't exactly a priority around here. She ran her tooth brush under it and started in on her teeth. She then pulled a clean jumpsuit out of her bag. Alex waved a white rag in her face. Bethany took it and looked at the black stains spotting in. "Is this your grease rag?" She asked holding it away from her face.

"You don't want to know what the bathtub looks like." Alex said already getting to work on her body. If the state of the rest of the bathroom was any indicator Bethany had a good idea. Bethany wrinkled her nose at the dirty scrap of cloth dangling inches from her nose.

"Do you want it or not?" Alex deadpanned. Bethany sighed and dipped the rag under the icy stream of water. She stripped off her vault suit and began scrubbing as much of herself as she could.

"Listen, I was thinking… Our bags are too heavy to carry for long periods of time, and we need money if we want to live long enough to catch up to dad." Alex said, her teeth beginning to chatter from the cold.

Bethany nodded. Her stomach hurt from how empty it was. "So I was thinking-" Alex started as the door to the bathroom opened and a woman walked in. She spared them a glace before going into the stall. They washed themselves in silence until the woman left. Bethany pulled on a clean jumpsuit and she felt a weight lift from her shoulders. She rubbed her hands against her shoulders in an attempted to warm herself.

Bethany unwound her braid and started to rake her fingers through it untangling it as best she can. She divided it into three sections and began braiding it tightly against her skull again. "I was thinking we could sell anything we don't absolutely need. Buy some food and gear and go back and search the rest of the town." Alex finished.

"Yeah okay."

* * *

"Hey there!" A disturbingly chipper voice called from behind the counter of Craterside Supply. "I'd heard there were some new strays from the vault. Good to see you!" Bethany walked up to the counter and began chatting with the bizarrely friendly woman. Alex didn't like that the whole town knew they were there for some reason she thought news wouldn't spread so quickly on the surface.

"We're looking for a gun? And to sell some supplies." Bethany told her.

"Well you've come to the right place what kind of gun are you looking for?" She inquired brightly.

"There are different kinds?" Bethany asked dubiously. The guard scoffed. Alex glared at him, it was a fair question. The only gun they'd ever seen was the ones the vault security carried. Not counting the BB gun their father gifted them when they were ten. The woman began explaining all the different kinds of guns and how they are best for killing different ways. She seemed oblivious to the fact that she should not be smiling when detailing the ways to explode a person's head. She reminded Alex of Beatrice.

Alex skimmed the shelves under the watchful eye of the heavily armed man in the corner. She traced her hands over guns and clothes. None of the clothes looked clean but the guns gleamed. On the far end of the store was a shelf fun of cans, her stomach growled in recognition. Alex began making a bee-line for them until her eyes locked onto something hanging on the wall just above them.

"Hey." She called. Bethany and Moira looked over. "Where did you get that vault suit?" Bethany looked startled upon seeing the vault suit too.

"Oh that old thing? Well about ten years ago or so some young woman, not much older than you two, rolled into town and asked me to beef up her vault suit for her. Never did return to pick it up. I wonder what happened to her, poor thing." She said sounding genuinely sad about the fate of a stranger she barely met 10 years ago.

"You must be mistaken, that says 101 and no one has ever left the vault before now." Bethany said.

"Well I don't know about that, didn't you say your dad left the vault before you?" Moira asked.

"Yes but that was unprecedented and-"

"It makes sense." Alex said to Bethany. "The Overseer tried to cover up our leaving, he'd probably cover up anyone else leaving too." Bethany frowned but she didn't argue.

"I'll tell you what, if you help me out with a little project of mine I'll include it in your purchase, free of charge." She beamed.

"Alright." Bethany said apprehensively.

"Oh goody! Now, tell me what it was like to live underground your whole life or to come outside for the first time; whatever strikes your fancy." She pulled note pad seemingly out of nowhere and stared at Bethany awaiting her reply eagerly.

"What's it like _not_ living in a vault your whole life? I don't really have anything to compare it to. But, well, we felt safe in there. Not like out here where everything and everyone is waiting for its chance to kill you." Bethany explained.

Alex rolled her eyes. "It was a suffocating totalitarian…" Bethany scowled at her, "But it was home." She finished in appeasement.

"Great! So I'm working on a book about the wasteland, and that will make a great forward. Say, do you want to help me with my research? It'll be loads of fun and I'll pay you and everything!"

"Alright." Bethany said. She missed the guard shaking his head but Alex did not.

* * *

"Can you believe what that woman wanted me to do?" Alex ranted at her sister while they followed the path back to the little town they passed through yesterday. The sun was still low in the sky, and there was a pleasant breeze. After Moira's they checked back at the Saloon to see if Moriarty was back yet but Gob just said he didn't know when he'd be back. Bethany wanted to wait for him but Alex was dying to get those bottle caps they left, and maybe anything else they'd overlooked. She felt lopsided in the armor, the vault suit was too big for Bethany so Moira had to take the pieces and transfer them to one of Bethany's own vault suits. It was slightly less sturdy, but it was better that the death suit she'd been wearing before.

"In her defense she didn't specify which one of us she wanted to expose themselves to lethal levels of radiation." Bethany said. She was glancing around occasionally clutching a brand new rifle. Their bellies were full but they'd already depleted all the money they got from their trade with Moira. Alex never imagined she'd enjoy two hundred year old beans and mac 'n cheese as much as she did this morning. Both of them got seconds and Alex got thirds.

"Yeah but we both know it would have been me. Thank god for your 'medical expertise'." Alex did not get a new weapon, with her luck she'd end up shooting her own foot off, no, her bat suited her just fine. Moira showed her how to hammer some nails through the wood, Bethany didn't like it but Alex had been delighted. She'd immediately started mentally mapping out the next improvements she could make to it.

"It wasn't a complete lie, I'd read several detailed case studies about advanced radiation poisoning. I probably told her more than she'd be able to glean herself anyway." Bethany sniffed indignantly. Alex didn't argue, but instead kept her gaze fixed on the horizon. They'd yet to run into any trouble, hell more people had tried to kill them back home than out here. She was having a hard time reconciling this place with the Outside she'd been told about growing up.

Bethany hummed and Alex walked along the faded yellows lines that still decorated the cracked and crumbling asphalt of the old road. She stepped carefully along the line her hands out to the side to balance her. The sun was beating down on them and Alex felt sweat drip from her scalp. She adjusted the collar of her leather jacket, "I never thought the sun would be so..." she trailed off.

"Hot." Bethany finished for her.

"Yeah." Alex was itching to take off the welding mask from her face but Bethany's warnings about going blind kept her creeping hands at bay. They soon arrived at the old neighborhood, 'Springvale'; her Pipboy had labeled it. They combed through the buildings more carefully this time. The bag of bottle caps jangled loudly in Bethany's bag and it grated on Alex's nerves. She didn't understand why they couldn't have picked a quieter supplement for money like, you know, actual money.

When they were finished they'd unearthed another box of 10mm rounds, a few bottles of booze, about 54 bottle caps total, and Alex had found two inhaler looking things stashed in a mailbox. Alex wanted to leave them but Bethany insisting they might be worth something. Alex fiddled with the dials on her Pipboy.

"It's only noon, do you want to go check out those ones?" Alex asked her sister pointing down the hill at the smaller, mostly intact houses across from a large wrecked building. It loomed ominously over the neighborhood. Unfamiliarity felt dangerous but now everything was unfamiliar. Bethany took a long drag from one of the water bottles they'd bought and followed her gaze.

"Yes, but we need to keep our eyes on the clock, we might not be able to find our way back in the dark." Bethany said capping the water bottle and tucking it back into her bag. They walked down the gently sloping road, Alex looked down at her feet balancing on the yellow lines and Bethany trudged along sending rocks and loose asphalt skittering with the toe of her vault tech regulation boots.

"Springvale Elementary School." Bethany rattled off. Alex looked up and saw the sign her sister was reading from "Can you imagine needing such a big building just for school? The old world used space so inefficiently." Alex's eyes went to the crumbling structure casting a shadow on them. It was at least three levels high.

Suddenly the hairs on the back of Alex's neck stood completely on end. She whirled around and saw some dots moving on the horizon. "Get down!" Alex barked at her sister.

"What, why?" Bethany asked incredulously, but she obliged.

"People." Alex answered dragging her bat out of the straps of her bag. They crouched in the shadow of the school and Alex had never felt more exposed in her life. What she wouldn't give to have walls around her.

"Maybe they're friendly?" Bethany offered, she didn't sound convinced herself.

Alex opened her mouth but was interrupted by bullets spraying the ground around them. Bethany screamed and Alex tackled her behind the sign. A few more bullets _pling_ -ed off the sign and then it was silent. Alex peeked around the edge, she could see the silhouettes just cresting the hill into Springvale from the south. A bullet hit the metal just two inches from Alex's face. "Fuck!" She yelled pulling herself back behind cover. Beside her Bethany breathed hard.

"We need to get behind better cover than this. We need a distraction." She gritted. Alex wracked her brain for a way to get them out of this situation alive. They could run along the building and get behind it, but running in a straight line when people are shooting would be a death sentence. They could try zig zagging to one of the houses across the street, but what then? There were too many unknowns they could die just as easily from.

"I have an idea." Bethany breathed. She held up a bottle of whiskey they'd found earlier with a grey sock stuffed mostly inside it.

"Beth, you're a fucking genius." Alex grabbed the bottled and the lighter from her pocket. "Be ready to move." She held the lighter up to the sock and the flame licked it greedily. She held it in her hands a moment making sure the flame caught. Alex stepped out from behind the sign, "Choke on this!" she yelled and hurled the bottle with all her strength at the ground right in front of the shooters.

In an instants she was dragging Bethany towards the metal doors of the elementary school, they could lose them in the school and escape back to Megaton. Bethany stumbled and felt like 140 pounds of dead weight but Alex held her firmly never looking back. Alex pulled open the door and flung Bethany into the dark slamming the door behind them.

A horrible stench slammed into her and she staggered back against the door. "Oh god." Bethany cried. Alex ripped her welding mask off her and flung her arm across her nose and mouth. She realized her mistake the second shapes began to form in the gloom. Mutilated corpses hung from chains and hooks in the ceiling. The walls were smeared in black congealing blood and the floor was slick with new. In the middle of the room were two large iron cages with pieces from several bodies and god knows what else inside.

Bethany leaned heavily on the wall. "We need to get out of here." She gasped.

Alex grabbed her sister by the hand, "We don't have time." She dragged her down a hallway off to the right away from the grisly scene. Bethany's movements were labored and awkward. Alex glanced back and her sister's face was pale under the vault security helmet. She heard the front doors slam open.

"Daddy's home mother fuckers!" A rough male voice called out. To her surprise voices answered him from within the building. _They'd taken cover in the raiders fucking base._ "And we've got company, two little girls a long way from home. How 'bout we give them a big wasteland welcome!" He was met with whoops and hollers. Her blood ran cold.

Alex pulled Bethany into a doorway to their right, it was some kind of eating area. Alex carefully overturned a table in the corner just inside the doorway so they'd be out of sight of the hallway. They crawled behind it and tried to catch their breath. Alex looked over to Bethany and saw that her right calf was soaked with dark red blood.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Alex whispered. Her hands hovered over her sisters leg. Her chest tightened like her heart was in a steel vice.

"S'not as. Bad. As. It looks." Bethany said in between breaths. "Just need. A stimpack." Alex scrambled for Bethany's bag but it was nowhere in sight. "I dropped it outside." Bethany added, her breath finally evening out. Alex locked eyes with her sister.

"Can you run?" She asked gently.

"I don't think so." Bethany said grimly. Alex turned over the information in her head. She picked up the discarded rifle and put it in Bethany's hands. Bethany looked at her questioningly.

"I'm going to go out there kicking up a big fuss that they can't ignore, it will draw them away from you giving you a chance to slip past-"

"You're leaving me?!" Bethany blurted out.

"What was that?" A voice called out from down the hallway.

"Yes. When you think we're far enough away make a break for the door and don't look back. Go to the vault." It was the only reference point they had. Alex stood and shrugged her bag onto her shoulder.

"Wait!" Bethany said grabbing Alex's hand.

"I will come for you. I promise." Alex said giving Bethany's hand a final squeeze. "I will come for you." Alex ripped her hand free and exploded around the corner barreling directly into a person. She elbowed him to the ground and she kept moving past him moving further and further into the tomb of a building. She was screaming all the while "Come and get me mother fuckers!"

* * *

Bethany stayed crouching in her hiding place her rifle gripped tightly in her hands. Sweat dripped from every pore in her body as she strained to hear her sisters movements. She heard a few people jog towards her doorway and she closed her eyes tightly praying for them to ignore the room. They sounded, strange, and heavy, like they were weighted down with metal or something that shifted with every step. When the footsteps went past her and followed the commotion her sister was kicking up she breathed a sigh of relief.

She stood cautiously and carefully picked her way over the table and garbage strewn about the floor. She poked her heard from the doorway and didn't see anyone. She crept down the hallway trying to keep the weight off her injured leg. She limped along at a mind numbing pace and kept her ears tuned to the sound of her sister. She started when the noise suddenly stopped. She picked up her pace and heard the sound of bottle caps jangling. She froze in fear patting herself down to stop the noise from giving her away.

"Ahem." Someone said from behind her. It was then she realized the bottle caps were in her bag that she'd dropped outside. She turned and was met with a filthy man that reeked of blood and human filth. "Looking for this?" He said holding up her bag. She tried to run but he raised an arm and her world went black.

* * *

Alex was vaguely aware that she was moving. Her head pounded and her throat was thick with her own blood. She wasn't moving, someone was moving her. Dragging her actually. Alex tried to force her eyes open but they felt heavier than if they'd actually been weighed down. Her head thumped hard against something metal and she stopped moving. She groaned and blinked her eyes open. Daylight filtering through high windows illuminated the silhouette of a person crouched above her. She felt hands roaming over her body and she clenched her fists and her eyes attempted to focus. The person's movement halted.

"Morning princess." He spoke. Looming over her. Her vision swam but she could make out a black smile framed by cracked lips. "I was hoping you'd wake up. I like it better when they fight back." Alarms were going off all over her body and she tried desperately to sit up. She got up halfway before puking all over the shoes of the person.

He laughed and she squinted up at him, he was bald save for a thin strip of ratty hair down the middle of his head. "Can't move huh? I got something for that." He put something towards her face and she tried to smack his hand away. He punched her hard in the nose and fresh blood streamed down her face and into her mouth. She groaned and he inserted something hard and plastic into her mouth. He pinched her nose and she screamed against the pain. Suddenly her mouth was hit with a burst of chemicals. He let her go and she flopped back to the ground.

Her eyes snapped open and she was on her feet in half a second. Her heart slammed against her ribcage. Her heart was beating in her chest and even harder in her ears. Bolts of energy flowed down into her limbs and her fists clenched tightly. She was in one of those cages. Her feet squished into a ruined bloody mattress. She focused on his face. It was covered in crisscrossing scars. Her eyes flew to his hand, in it was that weird inhaler thing. He must have found it in her pockets. He brought it to him mouth and breathed.

"Ahh!" he screamed shaking his head violently startling her as he threw the inhaler aside. "Lets go." He said moving towards her. Alex reacted instantly her hand flew out and she punched him in the face. He staggered back and shook it off. He kicked high hitting her squarely in the stomach. She grunted and fell against the iron bars. The drug or whatever gave her crazy energy and she was ready for his next strike, she ducked under his outstretched arms and lunged for the gate. It wouldn't budge and he laughed grabbing her from behind pinning her arms against her sides. She felt his hot breath on her neck and the rank stench invaded her nostrils.

She slammed her head back into him with a loud crack, he dropped her and she was on him. She grabbed his arm and shoulder and used his weight as momentum to slam his face into the bars. He gurgled and slumped. Alex brought her boot down hard on his head and it crunched under her foot. Gore seeped into her boots. She crouched over his body, "You're right that was fun." She spat on him and patted down his body.

She came back with the key to the cage and the other inhaler. As she stared at the items in her hand a scream from somewhere in the building pierced her to her very core. She let herself out of the cage and took a long drag from the inhaler, setting her senses on fire. She was on the move.

* * *

Bethany fought and kicked all the way she was being carried down into the bowels of the school. It was no use as the raider holding her was three times stronger than her. He was taking somewhere and she was doing everything in her power to stop him. She tried to throw her weight backwards as he carried her up the stair but at most she just made him angry. He threw her down and grabbed her up by the throat shoving her against a wall lifting her off the ground. Her feet dangled uselessly and she grabbed at his hand hands trying to keep him from crushing her esophagus. Luckily for her that didn't seem to be the goal and he kept the pressure constant as spots appeared across her vision. She forced herself to go limp and he let go.

Her body slumped against the wall and this time he hefted her over his shoulder. She let her arms dangle against his back. She Heard voices of other raiders in the rooms they passed. "Hey!" a woman's voice called out. "Where you going with that? I want a turn before you kill her."

The man carrying her shifted her, "Boss wants to see if she can get us into that vault up on the hill, after that she's his, then mine, then maybe I'll consider giving her to you." Terror seized her and it took everything she had in her just to remain still. Metal plates covered his shoulders much like the leather one attached to her, and the metal dug into her ribs.

"Aw whatever. I'm gonna see Viper about sharing the other one." The woman called out after him. Bethany bit down on her lip, hopefully Alex had gotten away, and the woman just assumed they were going to catch her. They passed the threshold into a new room and Bethany seized her moment. She grabbed the pistol off his belt.

"What the?" he grunted as he threw her onto the ground. The impact forced the breath out of her but she held fast to the gun. Suddenly there were about four more raiders all around her pointing guns directly in her face.

"Drop it." A voice commanded. She lifted her eyes from the barrel of his gun to his face. His skin was dark from living above ground and his eyes were black and murderous. She looked at the others and thy all looked eager to pull the trigger. She carefully set the gun down. The second it hit the ground the raider who'd carried her in wrenched her to her feet nearly pulling her arm out of its socket. She yelped and he tossed her into a chair.

The other raiders looked at the one who spoke and he nodded his head towards the door. They filed out, only the large man who carried her in and the leader remained. She didn't miss the way they looked at her. She wondered if she'd soon be one of the bodies decorating the entrance. She shuddered. The leader paced the room and stopped on front of her. He reached for her and she recoiled but he only pulled her helmet off and tossed it to the side. His face only a foot from hers. "Now you're going to tell me how to get into the vault, and then, if I like what you tell me, I'll kill you, and then give you to my boys." Bethany cringed and leaned away from him. She looked at the raider who carried her in, he was standing idly by the door.

There was no way she could let them into the vault, even if she was wiling. He would be an imposing figure even if she weren't in her current predicament. He was massive, probably about 6 foot 4. His hair was dark and greasy and hung limply on the right ride of his head, the left being completely shaved. Dark facial hair shadowed the lower half of his face.

The man in front of her was smaller but no less terrifying. His hair was cropped short and his eyes smeared with black paint. That paired with the sharp metal spiked covering his armor made him look like death incarnate. He pulled his hand back and Bethany saw stars. The blow had knocked her out of the chair and she held her stinging face. It wasn't a punch, so thankfully, she still had all her teeth.

He crouched down and sat on his heels. "Okay, we're gonna try this again. How can we get into the vault? I know you came from there." he asked in a low and dangerous voice. Running his fingers along the collar of her vault suit.

"I- I don't know." She stammered. He grabbed her leg and pressed his finger into her bullet wound. She screamed, the pain had faded into a dull pulsing but now it was on fire. "I f-found it." She gasped. He stood and swung his foot at her stomach. The vault suit did nothing to protect her from the full force of the kick. She turned on her side and wretched, but nothing came out. He grabbed her by her hair and hauled her to her feet. He held her level with his face and she held onto his hands trying to keep him from ripping her scalp off.

He reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out a knife pressing it against her throat. "Okay! Okay!" Bethany cried. She could feel the cool metal biting into her skin. He studied her for a minute and pulled the knife away from her skin so now it just rested gently against her skin. Blood welled out of a thin cut on her neck and dripped down the front of her vault suit. "There's a door code. It's alpha-numeric, I'll need to write it down for you." He released her and she collapsed with a sob on the ground.

"Was that so hard?" He said tucking his knife back into his belt. Bethany held her throat protectively and inched away from him until her back hit a metal desk. The man nodded to the raider at the door. "Go tell the others to get ready. I'll finish up here." The man left and Bethany watched the one she was left with. He walked over to her and she flinched, but he was just pulling a paper and pencil from the desk.

He handed them to her. She grabbed them with shaking hands and scribbled out random numbers and letters until it looks sufficiently complex. He grabbed it out of her hand as she lifted it to him, "You sure this is it?" She wonder what they were going to do when they got to the vault and they realized she lied. Bethany nodded her head. "Alright." He said tucking the paper into his armor. He leaned against the desk and watched the door. She didn't dare ask what he was going to do with her. She had an idea though.

She scanned the room for a potential weapon, she clutched the pencil in her hand, but she couldn't kill him with it. Maybe blind him. There were overturned desks and a globe a few feet from her, she was scanning the desks for something when she saw it. A brick, what it was doing here she had no idea but with enough force she could stun him to get away. From there she'd just have to figure it out. She inched over slightly and he stood. She froze in place but wasn't paying attention to here. "Do you here that?" He asked. Bethany didn't hear anything. He stared hard at the door and she inched sideways she kept her eyes on his back.

When she was only a few feet away from the brick she reached her arm out finger crawling across the floor. He moved and suddenly he was on her. He knocked her to the ground and straddled her. "The fuck do you think you're doing?" She struggled to breathe as his weight pressed down on her. He pinned her hands above her head with one hand. He wrenched the pencil out of her hand and hit her hard in the face. This time he used a closed fist knocking her head back against the tile floor. She tried to move but she could not budge him. She started to cry. She was going to die here. Her father would never know what happened to her, she would never see her home or her sister again.

She saw movement in the doorway and the raider pulled his knife pressing it to her cheek. Her sobs turned to shocked laughter. "What's so funny?" He asked pulling back. He was probably used to screaming and pleading.

"You're going to die." She giggled. He was shocked by her statement and more laughter bubbled out of her. She looked behind him and he followed her gaze. Alex stepped through the doorway. She was moving slowly and she was absolutely covered in blood from head to toe and her hair hung in her face loosely. She dropped Bethany's bag and clutched her side. Bethany took it back, the guy on top of her was nothing. Alex was death incarnate. But she was hurt, Alex swayed on her feet and fixed the raider with a look that should have melted the skin off his face. She glanced down where she was clutching her own side. A screw driver was sticking out of her gut. She gripped the handle and pulled it from her body with a grunt. Fresh blood welled out of the wound and Alex dropped the screwdriver with a clatter. It rolled noisily towards Bethany. She took a step forward and fell to her knees.

"You?" He laughed incredulously. Alex held her stomach and wheezed.

"I'm not the one you should be worrying about." She coughed. The raider began to turn back to her and Bethany took her chance, she broke her hands from his grasp and slammed the screw driver into the side of his neck and made sure to pull it out. Blood spurted from his neck showering Bethany's neck and face and his eyes went wide. She'd hit his carotid dead on. Alex lunged and grabbed his knife hand from behind keeping him from bringing it down on Bethany. He struggled against her but his strength was waning fast. He went limp and Alex shoved his body off of Bethany. "You came for me." Bethany said.

Bethany wiped her eyes with her sleeve and sat up. The man that would have killed her stared vacantly at the ceiling, eyes wide and glassy. Bethany saw that Alex was laying on the ground propped up on one elbow. "I told you I would. He didn't-?"she started.

"No, I'm okay." Bethany answered her. She got to her feet and limped over to her bag. She rifled through it and pulled out her med kit. She stabbed a stimpack into her calf just below her bullet wound. It went right through her and missed bone so thankfully she'd only be left with a scar. She knelt by Alex and unzipped the front of her vault suit. She pressed the needle directly into her stomach and Alex groaned. Now she began taking inventory of her sister's injuries.

She was horrified to find that most of the blood covering Alex was her own as much as it was the raiders. Bethany stuck her with two more stimpacks, one in her neck and one in her thigh. Bethany set Alex's nose back in place and Alex grunted. Bethany wiped the blood off her hands and helped her to her feet. Bethany adjusted her grip to bear some of Alex's weight. "Let's get out of here." Bethany said.

* * *

 **Reviews encouraged:)**


	4. There are Such Things

**There are Such Things**

Megaton greeted them on the horizon just as the sun began to set. Alex leaned heavily on Bethany. The entire trek they'd been trying to outrun the shadows slowly creeping across the wasteland. As they approached the door Bethany could see the lookout tracking them with his rifle. She raised her hand in greeting and waited for the gate to open. She thought he might have mistaken them for raiders, but after an agonizingly slow second the gate screeched and opened enough for them to go through. Bethany wasted no time and she dragged her sister through ducking under the still rising gate.

Once the secondary gate was shut behind them Bethany could finally breathe. Alex's skin looked grey in the fading light. She did the best she could back at the school but it wasn't enough. She'd always operated under the close supervision of her father in a high tech medical facility. She didn't know field medicine. Lucas Simms jogged over to them hand resting on his pistol.

"What fresh hell did you two run into?" He asked eyeing Alex. Her eyes were narrowed against the sun, the twilight was still too bright for them. She lost her welding mask back at the school and Bethany didn't want to waste time looking for it.

"Raiders, at the Springvale Elementary School." Bethany answered.

"Springvale is overrun, you should have never wandered in there yourselves." He said shaking his head. "I suppose we could send a few volunteers in to clear the place out… Never felt right having that many so close to home."

"There aren't any left." Alex said. "But that information would have been really useful yesterday." Lucas Simms eye her warily, Alex's glower might have been more imposing if she didn't look seconds away from keeling over.

"You said there was a doctor here?" Bethany chimed in.

"Down that way," Simms said gesturing into the crater, "Across the way from the Brass Lantern." Bethany nodded and began walking as swiftly as possible in the direction.

"And here," Simms called after them. He heaved a pouch into the air and Alex's hand shot out to catch it. The bottle caps clanked against each other loudly, and Alex groaned gripping her side. "For taking care of those raiders."

People stared at them as they passed but the look on Alex's face was enough to avert their gazes. Bethany was grateful for it, she squirmed under the close scrutiny. "You better be damn near dying." A gruff voice called out when they opened the door to the clinic. A dark skinned white hair man came out from a small adjoining room, he stopped dead in his tracks when he got a look at them. "Put her on the exam table."

Bethany obeyed and Alex grumbled about being moved around like livestock but she allowed the help. Bethany helped her strip off her vault suit and Bethany gasped stepping back. She was covering in bruises and shallow cuts. The doctor got to work immediately. There was no indication that Alex was in pain beyond the change in her breathing. Bethany hovered closely and the doctor stepped on her more than a few times. He must have gotten frustrated because he started giving her orders to fetch this and that. Eventually he handed her a rag and told her to wash up. She dabbed at her neck and face absently as she watched him work. He injected her with a few more stimpacks, and checked under the bandages on Alex's head and stomach. Fresh blood oozed from the hole in her stomach. He got to work stitching her up. "I tried…" Bethany trailed off. Her eyes stung.

"You did enough." He said snipping the thread. "She'll live. She'll have scars, but she'll live." Alex stood and pulled her vault suit back over herself grimacing as she zipped it up. It was more brown and red than blue now. "Now on to you."

"What?" Bethany asked. Alex nodded her head over to a glassy square on the wall. It took Bethany a moment to realize that it was actually a mirror and not a painting of a sad little girl. Her hand reached up to her neck and gingerly touched the dark purples bruises forming around her neck. They reached from her collar bone to connect with the bruise on her face from where he'd hit her like some kind of grotesque necklace. One of her eyes was red from a subconjunctival hemorrhage. "Oh." She said softly. She trade places with Alex who'd opted to perch on the table to the left.

The doctor fussed over her turning her head this way and that. He had to remove her boot and cut up the leg of her vault suit in order to get to her bullet wound. She winced as he cleaned it and Alex crossed her arms. Bethany's sister had not spoken since they got to the clinic and she would not take her eyes off Bethany's neck. Her frown deepened and she looked at her shoes.

"Hey," Bethany said softly nudging Alex's leg with her bare foot. The doctor grumbled. Alex looked at her and scowled again. "Don't. If you hadn't; it would have probably been way worse." The doctor paused for an almost imperceptible second before continuing his ministrations.

The doctor stood, "Lucky for you you're mostly bruised. Avoid anything too strenuous and you should be good. Now, normally this would cost you close to 450 caps, but seeing as you did some of my job for me I'll bump it down to 400 even." Bethany balked. Of course they had to pay. The Overseer had been telling them for years people outside vaults sought only to serve themselves. Alex handed him the bag Simms had tossed them and hour ago. The doctor poured it out counting them. "You're 60 short."

"Wait." Bethany slid off the table and pulled the pouch from the Springvale house of out her bag. She bit her lip and held it out to him. She knew it wouldn't be enough. He poured this pouch out and counted them too. He frowned.

"Fine. Now get out of here before I regret helping you." Bethany wasted no time slinging her bag over her shoulder and escaping from him, Alex in tow behind her.

* * *

Alex and Bethany stood around one of the trash cans that dotted the Megaton walkways, this one in particular housed a fire. Alex wasn't sure what the fire trashcan was originally for, but right now she was using it to burn her clothing. She covered her nose and mouth with her hand, but the stench still wormed its way through the cracks into her nose. Her vault suit had been completely ruined, blood soaked all the way through it making the tough utility fabric stiff and rank. Even her sports bra could not be saved and so she tossed it too into the fire. After losing one in the vault, Alex was now down to the one vault suit on her. At least her tunnel Snake Jacket had been spared. She's pulled it off a corpse of one of the raiders that took it from her when they knocked her out.

Alex pulled the jacket closer around her as wind whipped past them. It still smelled faintly of Butch and of home. Her heart ached painfully in her chest. She hadn't allowed herself to mourn yet. Alex gazed into the dancing fire until shapes began to form. They were abstract at first, but they soon morphed into screaming faces; the raiders she'd killed. She felt the first raider's head cave under her boot as blood and brain matter seeped up over her foot. The next she'd killed by stabbing a piece of sharpened rebar through her gut. There was tension as first as her body resisted, but them it slid through her all of a sudden like a knife through butter. She gripped the metal sticking out of her with blood slick hands. Alex had clamped her hand over her mouth and she screamed against her palm until life left her. She picked up her bat off this raider, so the next few were easier.

She raised her bat, and brought it down on heads and legs or arms. Until her victim stopped moving. Rinse and repeat. Like a machine. The drug flowed through her veins making her feel head feel like it was full of cotton, and she moved in slow motion. It felt more like she was watching a movie through someone else's eyes, and she was just along for the ride. The dreamlike quality of her trip up to Bethany was sharply contrasted by their trip down. Bodies littered the floor in twisted broken piles. Alex could see her mark all over them. Bethany kept her eyes up and kept them moving, they probably should have looted the bodies but Alex couldn't bring herself to look too closely at them. They only stopped to grab her Tunnel Snake jacket. The raider she pulled it from looked almost like she could be asleep, at least compared to the others. Alex had shattered her hip with her bat and then used the raiders own knife to slice open her thigh. She bled out.

Alex squinted against the light across the fire at her sister. Her vault suit was equally bloody, little of which was her own, and so she'd opted to burn it as well. After they pried the armor off Bethany eagerly tossed the ruined suit onto the flame nearly smothering the fire in the process. Bethany was staring out at the city. She chewed her Vault Tec id tag necklace, deep in thought. The collar of her vault suit was turned up and her hair, free from its usual braid hung down like a dark curtain. Alex could still see the pink line from where the bastard cut her. If Alex had stayed with Bethany they might have been able to fight their way out together, but instead Alex got herself and Bethany caught.

Alex shuddered to think what might have happened to Bethany if the raider hadn't been stupid enough to pump her full of drugs, what might have happened to her. The sky was a light indigo now, and tiny white pin pricks of light had appeared in the night sky. "Are those stars?" Alex asked. They looked nothing like the only picture she'd seen of stars back in the vault. To be fair it was a painting, a painting she'd painstakingly replicated on the ceiling of their shared bedroom with stolen chalk. 'Starry Night' it was called.

When they were children Butch and Alex liked to make up stories about what the outside world would look like. At first the stories revolved around the grotesque monsters horribly mutated from the radiation. They made a game out of who could make the scariest story. As they got older their stories turned into questions. Do you think there's anyone left? Do they look like us? What about trees? How big do you think the world is? What do you think the stars look like? They were questions that only left their lips in whispers. Even more secret still were their plans of escaping the vault, of finding adventure. These dreams they only talked about in dark apartments in the dead of night, their secrets safe from prying ears. She wondered what he would think of the stars.

"They're beautiful." Bethany murmured. She dropped her necklace so it hung at her neck and she gripped the railing tightly as she gazed upwards.

Alex scanned the sky, "Which one do you think is the moon?" Some of the stars were brighter and bigger than the others, but they all kind of looked the same.

"Maybe that one?" Bethany offered pointing out the brightest star in the sky to the north. Alex agreed that it must be. They stood in silence as darkness settled around them.

* * *

"Are you James' kids?" The question startled them both and Bethany whipped around to face the scruffy looking man addressing her. He had an eyepatch and his head was wrapped in a bandanna.

"Yes. Do you know him? Do you have information?" She asked inching closer with each question. Her throat was a little raw, and her words hurt. Alex placed a hand firmly on her shoulder from behind her. The man raised his hands and backed up a step.

"I just wanted to tell you Moriarty's looking for you, he wants to talk. That's all I know." Bethany turned on her heel and grabbed her sister's hand dragging Alex along with her. Her leg screamed in protest but she only walked faster. The man mumbled something under his breath but she ignored him. When she got to the door to the saloon her hand hovered over the doorknob. She looked over at Alex waiting patiently beside her. She exhaled and plastered a friendly look on her face. She turned the handle and stepped into the dingy bar.

* * *

Jericho slammed his empty glass down on the counter and Gob jumped. The ex-raider glowered at him and Gob hurriedly grabbed the whiskey bottle from under the counter. He un-stoppered it and moved to pour the amber liquid but Jericho just grabbed the bottle out of his hand. "Put it on my tab." Gob nodded and moved over to the other end of the bar. He'd been on edge ever since Moriarty got back that morning. The beating he'd gotten for telling those girls that their dad and Moriarty had spoken was still fresh in his mind, and his labored movement. The door to the Saloon opened and two figured limped in. "Speak of the devil."

He cursed under his breath when they moved under the light. He almost didn't recognize them as the girls that had wandered in two days ago. He'd overheard two patrons earlier talking about them. They'd rolled into town earlier today soaked head to toe in blood. The guy had commented on how crazy vault dwellers always were, probably from being cooped up all their life, and all that inbreeding.

"Hey Gob, is Moriarty in?" Bethany greeted him. Her voice was raspy, probably something to do with the black ring or bruises around her neck distinctly in the shape of large hands. One of her eyes was the color of blood and her cheek was covered in a large yellowing bruise. His eyes lingered on her neck and she shifted tugging on the collar of her vault suit and pulling her loose hair forward. He looked at her face and her eyes were down cast. He opened his mouth to apologize for making her feel bad, or at least say something instead of just gaping.

"As I live and breathe!" Gob winced. His boss, Colin Moriarty, called out as he descended the steps. Bethany's attention was immediately on him and the moment was lost. "It really is you, the little baby girls, all grown up, and quite well it would seem." Alex stiffened and her clenching fists were not missed by Gob, nor Moriarty it would seem as his eyes narrowed at her.

"Mr. Moriarty, we're looking for our father, and I was lead to believe you could help us out?" Bethany said sticking her arm out in front of her. The gesture looked awkward and unpracticed. Moriarty took her hand in both of his and shook it firmly. He turned to Alex, but she did not offer her hand. Moriarty glanced over at Gob and he ducked his head, trying to look very interested in wiping down the bar.

"Come along into my office, its best not to be discussing business out in the open like this." Moriarty walked back around the bar and led the girls into his office. They hesitated for a moment at the door, Alex looked back at Gob and he met her gaze, shaking his head just ever so slightly. She closed the door behind them.

* * *

The door clicked softly behind Bethany and Alex moved to flank her. Moriarty sat completely at ease at his desk and she and Alex had no choice but to stand. Moriarty was not at all what she was expecting, he was fat, and old, with long while hair and a scraggly white beard. He also spoke strangely, even more strangely that the harsh tone and sharp vowel she's was becoming to expect from wastelanders. Considering his speech impediment and overall look he was anything but imposing, and yet his presence still filled up the space. Bethany knew better than to underestimate him, she saw his sharp eyes, he might not be strong but he was certainly not a man to owe any favors.

"I'm sorry but you must be mistaken, we've never been outside the vault before now." Bethany said biting her lip.

Moriarty laughed and Bethany flinched, "Is that what your father told you? That you two were born in that hole? That HE was born there?" he chuckled and Bethany decided right then that she hated him. "Oh the lies we tell to those we love."

"Look, we just want to find our dad. Do you know where he went or not?" Alex said. Her muscles were tense and fist clenched tightly at her side. The smile slid from Moriarty's face and was instead replaced by something more dangerous.

"See the thing is dearie," He rose from his chair standing too close to Alex and pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. "What you're asking for is information, and information is a commodity, and the right information is worth more than gold." He placed a cigarette in his mouth and lit it, taking a long drag. Alex's shoulders were creeping up, he was trying to intimidate them and she was losing patience.

"What do you want?" Bethany asked, there was no point in playing coy, he already knew they were desperate.

"Let's say… one hundred caps and Daddy's location is yours. Very reasonable." He took a drag of his cigarette and tapped it a few times letting the ash fall on Alex's boots.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." Alex raised her voice.

"What my sister means to say," Bethany interjected pushing Alex to the side so that Bethany was level with Moriarty and Alex was a safe distance away, "Is that we ran into a bit of trouble today, and we spent all our money at the clinic getting fixed up."

"I'd heard about that. I suppose we might be able to work out some kind of deal." Moriarty said blowing smoke into her face as he sized her up. Bethany wanted to squirm under his gaze but she forced herself to stand up straighter.

"Or," Alex said in a low voice stepping between Bethany and him. She took the cigarette out of his hand and stubbed it out on the desk. She was nearly toe to toe with him now, "You tell me where my dad went, and I don't rip your throat out through your asshole." She snarled the last words and Bethany flinched. Her eyes were glued to Moriarty, his face grew dark.

"I don't take kindly to being threatened in my own bar, but seeing as I'm in a generous mood, we'll call it three hundred caps and we'll call it even."

"Fuck you." Alex spat.

"See that might actually get you somewhere." Moriarty laughed and Alex raised her fist. Bethany darted forward and grabbed her by the wrist.

"Alex, go outside and cool down. I'll work it out." She said looking into her sisters eyes. Alex's face was flushed with anger, and for a moment Bethany was afraid she wasn't going to listen. Alex's eyes flickered over to Moriarty who was smiling smugly, and she sagged. She yanked her wrist out of Bethany's grip and stormed out slamming the door behind her. Suddenly Bethany felt very small in the cramped room all by herself with a strange man. She smiled anyway.

* * *

"Fucking creep." Alex muttered as she stomped into the now silent bar. The pretty redhead was not leaning against the wall like she was when they walked in, but there were still people at the tables near the walls, watching her. "The fuck you looking at?" She snapped. Her blood was still boiling and she wanted nothing more than to drive her fist into someone's ribs. They must have read it on her face because suddenly their own conversations were far more interesting than the crazy vault girl.

"Hey." A voice rasped softly at her. Alex turned to look at Gob, his eyes were darting around and he was tapping his fingers on the bar rapidly. He gestured her closer with his head, and Alex approached the bar slowly. He was admittedly nice, probably the nicest person they'd met out here, not counting Moira but she gave her the creeps. Alex still had a hard time looking directly at him though, so her eyes settled on the hole in his face where his nose should be. He slid a small scrap of paper across the bar and she covered it with her hand quickly. She locked eyes with him and his face was a plea; don't say anything.

She carefully tucked the paper still damp with his sweat into her pocket. "Could you tell my sister I'll be waiting for her outside?" She said casually.

"Sure thing." Gob nodded and began wiping the bar down again. Alex stepped through the door and was greeted by a cool breeze. She sighed and leaned on the railing looking out at the city. Light shone through dozens of holes in the ramshackle buildings and it reminded Alex of the stars. She pulled the paper out of her pocket and squinted at the hastily scrawled word; _'terminal'._ She'd noticed it in Moriarty's office. She wasn't sure why he would want to help them, but she did see why he might want to hurt Moriarty. She'd have to thank him if it panned out. She heard a light click behind her and she turned back to see a man, Jericho, someone said his name was, leaning against the wall of the saloon. The red glow of his cigarette lit up his features and they regarded each other for a moment.

Alex scoffed and turned back around. There were lights strung up along the buildings and fire trashcans places around the city, but instead of chasing away the dark they created shadows, black and ominous. It made Alex uneasy, in the vault it was never dark. Even in her own apartment light from the hallway always seeped through the heavy curtains, and her Pipboy always emanated a soft green glow. The idea that there could be something in the dark looking at her when she couldn't see it made her skin crawl.

The door to the saloon opened and Alex was bathed in light. Bethany looked unhappy. "Hey." Alex greeted. Bethany walked over to her and Alex looked over at Jericho to let her sister know they had an audience. Bethany glanced at him and perched next to Alex at the railing.

"He wanted us to go hunt down some woman he say's stole from him, in Springvale." Bethany said. Fear seized Alex and Bethany hastily added, "I said no, we aren't murderers."

"You aren't anyway." Alex mumbled. "But don't worry, I got it covered." Alex said passing the paper into her sisters hands. Bethany unfurled it and frowned.

"You want me to-?"

"No. I'll deal with it. I can figure something out." Alex cut her off. She didn't want Bethany to be put in any kind of position Moriarty could exploit, and she'd hate to see what he'd do if he caught her sneaking around his office.

"Well…Okay. I'm going to head to the common house. Be safe, please?" Bethany squeezed Alex's hand and headed out. Alex waited until her sister was out of sight before turning and walking over to Jericho. He raised his eyebrows.

"D'you thing I could bum one of those from you?" She asked. He eyed her, and then wordlessly held his pack out. She pulled a cigarette and places it between her lips. She light the end with her own lighter and took a long drag. She tilted her head back and exhaled a thick grey cloud of smoke. She groaned aloud in satisfaction. It was stale as shit, but it was the best thing she'd tasted since leaving the vault.

"I heard you used to be a raider." Alex said in between puffs.

"What's it to you?" Jericho asked. His voice was rough and deep. She could barely understand the mix of emotions swirling around her head so she just shrugged in answer. Her entire life had been ripped from her against her will, and then the raiders at Springvale took something else from her. She didn't know what, but she felt the absence in her chest. The emptiness filled her with dread and impending sense of panic.

Alex pushed off the wall and crushed her cigarette under the toe of her boot. If Bethany knew what she was about to do she'd slap her. She planted herself in front of him. He was taller than she'd initially thought, he had almost half a foot on her. "What do you want now?" he asked, like she was some petulant child. She stepped closer invading his personal space and grabbed his dick through his leather armor more firmly that absolutely necessary. He grunted in surprise and suddenly he was looking very intently at her.

"Good enough of an answer for you?" She asked, cocking her head to one side. He made no move to back away from her, which she took as a good sign.

"You trying to get back at Daddy or something?" He asked dropping his cigarette to the ground. He didn't bother to stomp it out.

"And if I am?"

Jericho just smirked, "Happy to be of service."

* * *

Bethany wrinkled her nose as the stench of dozens of unwashed bodies crashed over her. She closed the door to the common house behind her and scoped out the room for an unoccupied bed. By now she'd lost her novelty and thankfully no one spared her a second glance. The first floor was full but she managed to find a bed on the second floor that didn't appear to have a body in it. She kicked her bag under it and stretched across the length of it on her stomach. Her body practically melted into the bed and she breathed a sigh of relief.

The mattress itself was worn and grey and smelled distinctly of vomit, but Bethany was exhausted. She felt herself drifting into sleep and her eyes snapped open. She needed to wait for Alex to get back from hacking Moriarty's terminal. How exactly Alex was going to get in and hack the computer when Bethany was both the lock picker and hacker Alex didn't say. Bethany knew her sister would find a way though. She propped herself up on her elbows and toggled through her Pipboy menus. She skimmed the medical records until she got to the one that her father had normally sealed from her access. She hovered over the name 'Alexandra Clark' and bit her lip. She opened the file.

 _Vault Resident #2381_

 _Full Name: Alexandra Catherine Clark_

Bethany skipped all the basic information she already knew, height, weight, birthday etc.

 _8.15.2270_

 _Patient has been diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder based on a consistent pattern of behavior and displays overwhelming number of symptoms. Cause unclear, but I fear it may be a result of my extended hours at the clinic. I need to make a point to eat dinner with the girls more often… Though Bethany has not shown any symptoms. Patient to attend counseling appt. with vault Chaplin once a month. Revisit diagnosis in 4.2271_

Bethany balked, she never knew either of them had ever been officially diagnosed with anything. Alex never mentioned it. Bethany skipped through the next few sections where Alex was admitted for fights with Butch. She hovered over an entry from March 2274. She remembered that fight; it was the only one Alex refused to talk about. In fact, she was pretty sure it marked the end of Butch and Alex's relationship. Bethany had been the one to treat Butch, he called her a, well, a name and stormed out. Bethany's curiosity was piqued. She backed out and searched for her own file.

 _Vault Resident #2382_

 _{file could not be retrieved, please contact administrator}_

"What?" Bethany blurted out. She received a few wary glances and she waved them off. Why would her file be gone? She scrolled through dozens of other files pulling up each with ease, hers remained the only inaccessible file. Maybe her father was trying to protect them? But if that was the case why wasn't Alex's file gone too. Curiosity burned in her gut, maybe Alex had an idea.

* * *

Alex sat on the edge of Jericho's bed an unlit cigarette dangling from her lips. Alex was a virgin by no means, having lost it to Freddie a few years ago when they were dating, she still felt strange having fucked some random man from the wasteland. An ex-raider no less. She looked over and the snoring man beside her. His body was as rough as his face, darkened from years in the sun and covered in a web of scars. She lightly traced a particular deep scar across him chest. She wondered if she would look like him in a few years.

He hadn't been like she expected, in fact he'd eagerly accepted her commands and did not complain when she was unnecessarily rough. Alex wasn't sure if that was better or worse. She still felt empty inside, getting no real satisfaction out of it, beyond physical. She looked around his apartment, and her eyes settled on a small plastic inhaler sitting on a small table in the corner. She recognized it immediately and a shiver ran down her spine. Alex jumped from the bed suddenly needing to be anywhere but here. She yanked her vault suit up hastily only zipping it up halfway. She jammed her feet into her boots and glanced back at the bed. Jericho eyed her blearily and she froze.

He rolled back over exposing his marred back to her, the scratches she left beginning to scab over already. She hefted her bag onto her shoulder and tripped over her untied shoes and bumping into the tables jostling the contents. "See you around." She called out over her shoulder tucking the small red inhaler into her pocket.

Alex staggered into the common house around three thirty in the morning. She walked into the room and scanned the sleeping bodies. Familiar footsteps thudded down the stairs and Alex tuned to greet her sister. Bethany's face was flushed red and as Alex opened her mouth she reached out connecting her palm with Alex's cheek. It didn't hurt but Alex immediately recoiled from the hit. Bethany clutched her own hand to her chest like Alex's face was the one that attacked _her_. They stared at each other for a moment.

"Where _were_ you?! I was this close to busting into Moriarty's." Bethany whispered at her forcefully.

"I didn't mean to make you worry." Alex said reaching out pulling her sister into a hug. Bethany was stiff but she did not resist.

"You're all I have." Bethany mumbled into Alex's shoulder, her voice cracking. Alex rubbed her back until Bethany sagged against her.

"I found out where dad went." Alex murmured Bethany's loose hair tickling her nose. Bethany bolted upright.

"You did? Where is he going? Is he okay? Can we contact him?" Alex took her sister's rapid fire questions in stride.

"GNR, it's a radio station operating out of D.C. Don't know anything more than that, but you'd hate to see what Moriarty thinks of us." Alex said with a wry grin. Getting the info was shockingly easy. After checking inside the bar that Moriarty was upstairs with Nova, Alex just had to creep outside and sneak in the back door to his office. It took her a little while, and cost her all of her bobby pins, but she managed to pick the lock.

"Moriarty was stupid enough to leave his password written down in his office. We can be on the road by tomorrow morning."

Bethany jumped and clapped her hands together.

* * *

 **I like to build on preexisting canon so from now on there are going to be notes at the bottom of chapters explaining changes or headcanons I've included. As always reviews are welcome**


	5. I've Heard that Song Before

**Probably the shortest chapter so far, but a lot happens. As always I own nothing but my own characters**

* * *

 **I've Heard that Song Before**

The next day Bethany and Alex were on the road, but they were headed north instead of south east. Bethany really wanted to head to the city directly but Alex really wasn't in the shape for fighting yet. And if Bethany was being honest, neither was she. She hadn't said it out loud yet, but she knew both of them were still shaken by what happened at the school. Her neck still prickled at the memory. Bethany figured one more day wouldn't really put them back too much, so they'd settled on the (relatively) simple task of navigating a minefield for Moira.

Well, it was supposed to be simple, but their luck had been less than stellar lately, and so Bethany and her sister found themselves just inside a quaint little neighborhood, pinned down by an unknown sniper surrounded by pressure sensitive explosives.

"I'm really beginning to question that woman's sanity." Alex shouted over the explosion of a mine in the street twenty feet from their hiding place. Bethany flung her hand over her head as debris rained down on them. Her new sunglasses were already scratched and Alex's were cracked through one of the lenses. Bethany held her breath in the long stretch of silence that followed. Her muscles were already screaming from maintaining a crouch and she desperately wanted to stand.

"Do you think he lost us?" Bethany ventured. A mine exploded right beside the house they were hiding behind in answer. Wooden siding was blown off the house as its very foundation was shaken. Alex who was braced against the house fell out of her squat into the dirt.

"Man, fuck this guy. I'm just gonna grab one of the things so we can get the fuck outta her." Alex shouted. She scrambled to her feet.

"Moira said you should just be able to grab it and disable it from there, just make sure you don't step on it." Bethany warned. "Here," she said pulling a small hand mirror out of her bag. "I can use this to distract him while you go out there."

"I've got a better idea." Alex said. She darted forward and hefted a ruined tire in her arms hurling it towards the bulk of the mines as she rounded the corner into the street. Bethany cursed and dove onto her belly mirror in her hand outstretched just past the corner of the house. The tire must have hit something because a deafening explosion erupted. Bethany peeked around the cover and angled her mirror and jiggled it so the sun would be hitting the snipers nest. Alex bobbed and weaved as another mine was triggered as the tire was launched into it. Alex was thrown to the ground less than a foot from an active mine.

Alex sat stunned for a moment, and Bethany cursed. She pulled her rifle from her shoulder and fired three shots rapidly in what she hoped was the direction of the sniper. Alex used this opportunity to grab the landmine and run back towards her sister. She slid into cover kicking dust into the air. Alex breathed hard and lay still as the dust settled, landmine still clutched tightly in outstretched hands. The sniper had finally stopped firing. Alex laughed and sat up grinning at Bethany. Bethany felt a genuine smile split across her face, a laugh bubbled out of her throat. The rifle cracked and an explosion followed. "Fuck you!" Alex shouted in response.

Bethany crawled forward on her belly and dared a quick glance around the corner. She spied a car on fire across the street. Bethany opened her mouth to speak but suddenly an explosion shook the earth and a cloud of fire and smoke erupted from where the car used to be. Flaming steel rained from the sky and the girls got their feet. Bethany spied another car thirty feet from the first as a mine was set off right beside it. "Let's get out of here!" Alex didn't have to be told twice and the girls took off running as fast as their feet would carry them.

* * *

Bethany and Alex had run a ways south back towards Megaton. When they felt they were a safe enough distance away they took cover in the shade of a large rock formation. Alex had pried the face off the landmine and was poking her fingers around the innards. Bethany sat with her back against rock watching her sister from a safe distance of ten feet away. Bethany gazed skyward and watched wispy clouds lazily drag themselves across the greenish backdrop. A gently breeze blew stray hairs into her face ticking her.

"Ahah!" Alex shouted. Bethany jumped and her sunglasses fell back into her face from on top of her head. She threw a glare at her sister. Alex beamed holding a small spring triumphantly above her head.

"You got it?" Bethany asked incredulously.

"And you doubted me." Alex smirked tossing the spring at Bethany. Bethany reached to catch it but she stumbled dropping it on her boot. Bethany bent over and snatched the spring from the ground and stuck it in her pocket.

"Moira probably wants all of it." Bethany said dusting off the seat of her vault suit. "Ready to head back?" She asked.

"Actually I was hoping we could check that out." Alex said pointing towards a shape on the hill. Bethany could just barely make out a fence with stacks of cars lining it. It was a scrapyard they'd passed on their way to the minefield. She pulled up her Pipboy and navigated to the map. It was only midday, and they'd managed to avoid trouble on the road today aside from some revolting flying bug things, by giving all the buildings a wide berth. Bethany really didn't want to push their luck by actively wandering into a maze of unknown threats.

"Oh c'mon, I'm fine. If I didn't bust my stitches earlier in Minetown then I'm not gonna bust them wandering around a scrapyard." Alex pleaded. Bethany frowned but she sighed.

"Fine." Alex pumped her fist in victory and popped her broken sunglasses back on her face. "But," Bethany added, "You have to let me scope it out first."

* * *

Alex grunted as she heaved Bethany up over the fence and onto the stack of cars against it. Bethany crouched and peered through her scope scanning over the Scrapyard. Alex hooked her feet into the links of the fence and popped her head up next to her sister's boots, the rusty metal chain-link biting into her hands. She'd really need to get gloves if she was going to survive the tetanus filled apocalypse. Shots rang out and Bethany tensed. They were far away and thankfully not aimed at them. For once.

"See anything?" Alex asked, fearing the gunshots would signal their departure. Bethany bit her lip.

"A dog." Bethany lowered her gun and looked at something beyond Alex's line of vision. Bethany suddenly jumped down from her perch and Alex scrambled up the fence after her sister. Bethany moved with purpose weaving through stacks of cars and piles of old household appliances, Alex followed hot on her heels.

"We're running towards gunshots now?" Alex called at her sisters back. Bethany stopped suddenly and raised her gun. Alex skidded to a stop just shy of barreling through her sister. A raider raised his gun at a dog crouched low over a prone body. A deep rumble came from the dog, and Alex's hair stood on end. Bethany fired her gun and the raider dropped his gun. The dog jumped sinking its teeth into the raider's throat as he screamed. He fell and the dog shook its head tearing flesh.

"Shit!" Alex cursed grabbing her bat off her back. The dog turned towards them, its teeth gleamed red as it let out another bone chilling growl. Bethany carefully set her gun on the ground and held out her hands in front of her in surrender.

"Shh, it's okay." She cooed at it. Alex balked. The thing just killed a man, several, if the bodies missing throats littering the ground were any indication. The dog actually quieted and its lips relaxed down. Bethany crept forward and the dog looked behind her to Alex. It growled again.

"Alex!" Bethany admonished. Alex held her bat for a moment, the dog was easily within lunging distance of Bethany. She sighed and dropped it loudly. The dog immediately relaxed its posture, wagging its tail gently. It sniffed at Bethany's outstretched fingers and licked them. Bethany giggled. The dog went back to the body it had been guarding earlier and nudged his hand. The dog looked back at them and whimpered.

"Was this your owner?" Bethany asked crouching next to the body. She pressed her fingers to his neck and waited. The dog watched her intently. Alex walked over to the freshest raider and carefully picked over his body. "I'm sorry buddy, it looks like he died. But you did a good job protecting him." Bethany cooed at the dog, he whimpered again and butted his head against her hand. Bethany obliged and patted his head hesitantly. Alex tucked caps and bullets into her bag. As she made her way around to the bodies Bethany sat on the ground legs splayed out like a child, the dog planted firmly in front of her as she rubbed its head.

Alex walked back to the pair with a few guns to tie to Bethany's bag. Bethany bit her lip. "No." Alex answered preemptively.

"His name is Dogmeat." Bethany said pointing to a leather collar around his neck.

"We can barely afford to feed ourselves." Alex argued.

"He's all alone." Bethany pouted. The dog looked up at Alex with big mismatched eyes.

"Uhg." Alex relented.

"Thank you!" Bethany grinned. The dog barked happily too.

"But only because he's got funny eyes, like you." Alex sighed.

"Heterochromia iridum." Bethany chirped. "Technically I don't have heterochromia, because our eyes are hazel it leaves a lot of room for variance, and my eye only has a brown spot in it which is technically known as Iris Melanocytoma…" Alex tuned out her sister as she droned on in medical speak and looked down at the dog in front of her. She could have sworn he was grinning.

"What kind of name is Dogmeat anyway?" The dog just licked her fingertips in response.

* * *

Alex woke the next morning to snoring right in her ear and a body pressing firmly against her back. She was centimeters away from toppling over the edge of the bed. "What the hell?" She grumbled sitting up. Alex glowered at Dogmeat, who had planted his feet against the wall of the common house and stretched his legs out straight. He must have climbed onto the bed with her during the night. "Really?" she asked. He looked back at her his tough lolling out of him mouth.

"You should have heard the two of you snoring." Bethany's voice carried down from the top bunk. "I'm surprised no one kicked us out to be honest. I'm just glad I'm used to you." Alex could here amusement in her sister's voice, and she allowed a small smile to creep up on her face.

They started the day out as usual in the women's bathroom, Dogmeat, who'd already relieved himself on a few buildings, posts, and one person, slurped noisily from the toilet. Alex cackled while Bethany tried to wrestle him away from the bowl accompanied by a mantra of "Ew oh my god no." Eventually she gave up saying, "Just don't expect any kisses from me any time soon." The two girls washed up using the sink, by now they'd grown accustomed to the frigid water flowing out of the pipes each morning.

On their way to Moira's they debated what dogs actually ate. They agreed dogs ate dogfood, but what that actually constituted is where their opinions differed. Alex figured it was okay for him to eat whatever they ate, but Bethany swore there was an actual food item called dogfood they needed to find. Dogmeat gave no input, so they decided to feed him what they ate for now and to keep their eyes out for 'dogfood'.

Moira was thrilled with the landmine and she gave them grenades as a reward, as well as a schematic for a 'bottlecap mine' when Bethany mentioned (lied) that they made it to the playground. "Leaving so soon?" Moria asked after they finished trading the extra supplied they picked up at the scrapyard yesterday.

"Yeah, we've really spent too much time here as it is." Bethany answered. Moira then went around the counter and gave each of the twins a hug which Bethany accepted graciously, and Alex reluctantly. She sent them off with two extra boxes of ammo and an invitation to help her finish her work should they ever come back to town. Each of the girls got a new gun and their bags were loaded down with cans of food and bottles of water.

"You sure this is a good idea, you know, considering..?" Alex asked as they stepped into Moriarty's. Alex pushed her new goggles up onto her head and Bethany hung her sunglasses on the neck of her tank top.

"No." Bethany murmured. Her attention was pulled toward movement from an alcove to the right of the bar. Some man in a hat and narrow sunglasses waved her over. Alex quirked her brow, Bethany sighed "I'll see what he wants, you go ahead."

"My, my. Just when I had all but given up hope. My dear girl I am very happy to make your acquaintance. I am Mister Burke." His voice felt oily as it slid into her ears, Bethany had to suppress a shudder. He was the cleanest person she'd seen since leaving the vault and the first person she immediately disliked. "And you, you are not a resident of this putrescent cesspool. That makes you a rather valuable individual."

"What can I do for you Mister Burke?" Bethany smiled pleasantly at the man.

"Finally, someone with a modicum of civility and common sense." He oozed. Bethany almost snorted at the thought of how this conversation would have gone had Alex been the one to walk over. "I represent certain… interests. And those interests view this town, this 'Megaton', as a blight on a burgeoning urban landscape." Amusement drained from her at his words quickly replaced will a chill. "You have no real connections here. No interest in this cesspool's affairs, or fate. You could assist us in erasing this little accident off the map. I have in my possession a Fusion Pulse Charge constructed for a singular purpose; the detonation of that bomb. You'll rig it to the bomb, then you'll get paid. Handsomely. What do you say to that?"

"Well Mister Burke," she began, maintaining a polite tone, "You're wrong about a few things."

"Oh?" He said, leaning in.

"I do have connections here, friends even. And I would much rather die with this town, than waste another second of my time listening to a loathsome rodent of a man assert his inflated sense of superiority over this them." She smiled at him. His face was flushed.

"You will watch your tone girl," He snapped, "Or you may very well get your wish." He stood, his chair screeching out. Alex looked over at her from her place at the bar. Bethany stood straighter and got in his face.

"See the thing is my sister and I already disarmed that bomb so that it can never be detonated again." Bethany said looking at her nails. "You better go tell your employer you've failed."

Burke was shaking with rage and his hand inched towards the pistol on his hip. Alex immediately walked over hand on her shotgun. "There a problem here?" She asked narrowing her eyes at Burke.

"You will regret crossing me." Burke spat, he shoved past Alex and stormed out of the bar.

"Fuckin' creep." Alex growled. "You okay?" She asked placing her hand on Bethany's shoulder. Bethany's heart, which she hadn't even realized it was beating so hard, finally settled in her chest.

"Yeah thank you." Bethany placed her hand over Alex's and smiled. "He actually asked me to rig the bomb to blow up." Alex's eyes went wide. "Yeah, don't worry, he won't be back."

"So you've reconsidered my offer then?" Moriarty called out to them upon exiting his office and seeing them in his bar. Bethany groaned and they dropped their hands simultaneously.

"Actually, we decided to look for our dad by ourselves." Alex smiled, "I've got a pretty good idea where he was going anyway." Moriarty's went still.

"Suit yerselves then." He said quietly. Alex mock saluted him as he walked past them. Bethany tried to bat her hand down, but Moriarty had already seen it and scowled as he walked out the front of the bar.

"Also a creep." Bethany murmured. Alex nodded in agreement. "Hey Gob." Bethany said giving a genuine smile to the ghoul behind the bar. He smiled back hesitantly.

"Your sister tells me you guys are headed out. How about a drink, on me?" he offered pulling two glasses out from under the bar.

Her brows furrowed, "Won't that get you in trouble?"

"Ah to hell with Moriarty," He said his voice low and eyes darting around, "That guy's an asshole."

"I wouldn't say no to some Nuka Cola for the road." Alex offered.

"Can do." Gob said already reaching for the bottles. Bethany made her way around the bar and Gob turned around to face her, confusion drawing his brows down. She took the bottles from his hand and set them on the bar. He opened his mouth but she wrapped her arms around his middle enveloping him in a tight hug pressing her cheek to his chest. He gasped and remained stiff, but he made no move to push her off. He smelled kind of nice, very distinct, but still nice.

She pulled back and held his large rough hands in hers, "Thank you." She stood up on her toes and planted a kiss firmly on his cheek. He gaped and Bethany released him walking back around the bar. She ignored the look Nova shot her and linked hands with her sister.

"After you find your dad come back and visit me sometime!" Gob waved at them and Alex waved back.

"Ready?" Alex asked as they stepped out through the door and overlooked Megaton. Bethany's eyes fell to the bomb almost directly below them. She bit her lip.

"There's just one more bit of business we need to take care of."

* * *

 **Notes: I was watching videos online about how to disarm landmines and I was surprised to find that you can actually pick up live mines without being blown up. The really trouble is only when you put pressure on them, so that's why Alex can pick up the mine and disable it later.**

 **reviews welcome**


	6. Twelfth Street Rag

**Because of the nature of the game's content I decided to start putting trigger warnings in as well. They'll be at the bottom if there are any, to avoid spoiling anything. If there's something specific you want warnings for juts give me a heads up and I'll make sure to include it. As always I own nothing except my own characters.**

* * *

 **Twelfth Street Rag**

They'd only been on the road for about an hour and Bethany was already dragging her feet. Bethany was playing with the dials on her Pipboy, switching between two radio stations; static, and the one the little robot they'd encountered the first day was playing. Alex couldn't stand the sound of the guy's voice. He referred to himself as the president of the United States of America, but seeing as that didn't exist anymore Alex figure he was some crazy declaring himself president of a bunch of ruined buildings and about one hundred people.

Despite this Alex found the other station far more irritating. Bethany insisted she could make something out as they neared D.C., but all Alex heard was static. "Pick a station or turn that off." Alex snapped. Bethany quietly switched the radio off and dragged her feet even more.

"You could stand to be nicer you know." Bethany mumbled. They'd gone out of their way to stay out of the line of sight of the Super Duper Mart after seeing a raider party headed inside it. Bethany didn't want a repeat of Springvale and Alex had to agree. Dogmeat more or less tagged along. He'd run ahead or off to the side for a spell, but ultimately he stayed with them. On more than one occasion he came back with fresh blood on his mouth. Alex tried not to think about it too much.

After spending an hour or so disarming the bomb in Megaton Alex was anxious about the pace they were keeping. According to Jenny Stahl Galaxy News Radio was right in the middle of the D.C. ruins, and Alex did not want to attempt to navigate an unfamiliar city at night, when visibility would already be bad. "Here we are." Alex noted, making sure to add Farragut West Metro Station to her map.

It was exceedingly dark in the tunnels compared to outside and the fur on Dogmeat's back stood on end his nose lifted into the air. Not trusting herself with the shotgun yet Alex unsheathed her bat. Surprisingly some of the lights still worked, the rail system must be hooked up to a pretty beefy generator. She was reminded of the massive nuclear fission generator keeping vault 101 running. Dogmeat let out a deep growl and a large pink fleshy thing came flying out of the shadows at them.

"Fuck! What the fuck!" Alex cried swinging her bat at it as Dogmeat sunk his teeth into its hind leg. Bethany fired her rifle hitting the thing in the head dousing Alex in blood. Alex nudged it with her foot to ensure it was dead before crouching to examine it. Bethany hung back and observed from a safe distance.

"God it's ugly." Bethany commented, her lip curling is disgust. Alex nodded eyeing the mound of wrinkled pink flesh and teeth the size of her hand. They encountered a few more of the things and with Dogmeat's help they were able to dispose of them with relative ease. One managed to sinks its teeth into Alex's leg but Bethany and her rifle made short work of it. Alex stuck a stimpack in her leg and they moved on.

They found a service tunnel in one of the offices containing a securitron. They debated switching it on but Alex didn't have enough faith in her robotics skills that she wanted to risk having to fight it. Replacing a broken saw blade on Andy every once in a while did not make her an expert. She felt strangely at ease in the dark tunnels of the metro, the narrow hallways and tight corridors felt safe and secure. "That's lucky." Bethany said running her fingers over white paint decorating the walls. Someone had marked the way through the tunnels to 'GNR Outpost'. Alex wasn't sure what the thing next to the arrow was supposed to be, some logo maybe.

Alex took point at they wound their way through the tunnels, "Wait," She said holding up her hand, "Do you hear that?" Bethany cocked her head and they heard the sound of distant snarling. They carefully crept down a set of stairs as the snarling got louder into a room that reminded Alex of the maintenance level of the vault. The top level of the room was divided by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. Several ghouls threw themselves against the fence snarling even more viciously.

Bethany yelped and jumped back. "They must be ferals." She whispered, as if speaking would enrage them more than they already were. When it was clear the fence was going to hold Alex moved closer. Desiccated arms reached and swiped at her as she neared the fence, the ghouls had been riled up into a full blown frenzy by her proximity. Dogmeat voiced his displeasure by barking and snapping at the hands. They looked decidedly different from Gob, not so much on the surface, but they were scrawny, barely more than skin covered skeletons. Their eyes were fully clouded over.

"The radiation must cause the degeneration of the tissues, including the brain." Bethany mused allowed. "Their gross motor skills seem unaffected, so it seems like most of the damage is probably in the frontal lobe…" She trailed off. "I would love to study one in a lab setting. Maybe compare tissue samples between ghouls like Gob and these ones."

Alex scoffed, "Yeah I'm sure he'd be fine with you just slicing off a big ol' hunk of him. For science of course."

"I didn't say I was going to do it. At any rate we need to get through here, you see the door on the other side?"

Alex nodded, Bethany raised her gun to take them out but Alex put her hand on it lowering it with a grin. In her other hand she held one of the frag grenades Moira gave her. Bethany rolled her eyes but pulled Dogmeat away by the collar and ducked behind a console at the front of the room. Alex stood right next to them behind the console and yanked the pin out of the grenade tossing if over the fence into the writhing mass of flesh. She ducked quickly and covered Dogmeat's ears with her hands.

Alex cackled gleefully and Dogmeat jumped as the explosion sent a rumble through the tunnels. Alex popped up from behind cover, blood and gore decorated the room. "These things are great!" Alex shouted over the ringing in her ears. The explosion even blew the gate off its hinges. The twins picked their way through the gore, Bethany had the misfortune of stepping on a loose eyeball and she slipped nearly falling into a puddle of ghoul, thankfully Alex managed to grab her and right her. Bethany smiled gratefully at her sister and they made their way through the tunnels.

They exited the service tunnel into the larger underground tunnels that housed the broken down trains. It was significantly darker in here so the girls moved at a slow pace recognizing the sound of more feral ghouls around them. Bethany was able to down the few they did cross and Alex finished them off with a swift blow to the head with her spiked bat. Eventually the sound drew more and more ghouls and Alex feared being overwhelmed. "C'mon!" She shouted grabbing Bethany's arm dragging her into a sprint. A full pack of no less than seven ghouls were hot on their heels and more joined the chase as they blindly ran through the tunnels.

Soon the tunnel ended and it opened up into a large atrium of sorts with two levels. Alex spied the helpful graffiti directing her up the stairs to the upper level. Bethany was lagging but fear kept her legs moving. Dogmeat ran beside them even though Alex was sure he could have easily outrun them all. They took the stairs two at a time and Alex bolted for a tunnel to the left. It looked like the one they'd used to enter the metro. She prayed to whatever deity could hear her that the exit would not be caved in. Alex leapt over the turnstiles and Bethany stumbled through them, the stairs bought them a little time but not much. Alex shoved her sister towards the light shining down that now looked like rays directly from heaven. Alex pulled a pin from a grenade and threw it over her shoulder not bothering to turn around. They burst through the fence as it exploded behind them spattering their backsides with blood and god knows what else.

* * *

Bethany collapses on the steps her breath coming out in ragged gasps. Dogmeat came over and started licking blood off her neck and face, his foul breath invading her nostrils. She braced her hands against his chest but she didn't have the energy to push him off. Instead she watched Alex closing the latch to the gate leading back to the metro. Alex pulled a spoon out of her bag and jammed it into the hole meant for a padlock. The tendons in her neck bulged as she bent the spoon on both ends securing the latch. A bloodied body slammed against the fence and Alex fell backwards tripping over Bethany's legs. The ghouls was missing an arm and was bleeding out over the fence. They watched as it repeatedly threw itself against the metal until it eventually slumped over in a pool of its own blood.

"Right," Alex said getting to her feet, "Let's go." Bethany groaned and Dogmeat pawed at her. She got to her feet and reluctantly followed her sister closely. Buildings tall enough to scrape against the sky towered over them on all sides. Bethany squinted as the sun glared down at her. She pulled her sunglasses back onto her face and looked at their surroundings. The streets were piled high with jagged bits of concrete and metal suggesting that the building might have actually been taller somehow. It was strange being in the middle of a city, distant gunfire echoed off the walls and Bethany inched closer to Alex.

They hadn't seen any signs of life, but it was certainly present, closely accompanied by death; an inseparable pair in the apocalypse it would seem. They'd been walking maybe five minutes in the direction the helpful graffiti sent them when gunfire erupted nearby peppering them with bullets. Dogmeat yelped and Bethany panicked looking around wildly. "Where do we go?!" She cried. They were completely exposed in the middle of the street.

"Take cover behind that." Alex commanded pointing to a concrete divider. Bethany hesitated.

"What about Dogmeat?"

"I've got him. Go!" Alex shouted as more bullets tore through the air. Bethany didn't have to be told twice, she remembered what it felt like to be shot. She dove behind the cover and pulled out her rifle. She propped it across the top of the tiny wall and took aim. A group of big green… somethings were shooting at them. Bethany fired at them, she landed a few hits but really it just drew their fire rather than do any real damage. Alex slid into cover with her Dogmeat cradled in her arms and Bethany ducked back into relative safety. He yelped in protest at their rough landing and crawled over to Bethany. She grabbed at him and her hands came away wet with his blood.

"No no non nonono." She wailed, pulling her arms back immediately. Tears poured from her eyes and she started to hyperventilate Dogmeat licked at her fingers to comfort her which just made her cry more.

"Beth, stop!" Alex barked. "He's okay, just grazed."

Bethany tentatively touched at his bloodied side. She was right. She sobbed again and Dogmeat wormed in pressing himself to her chest. "He just needs a stimpack." Alex yelled as bullets ricocheted off their cover. Alex grabbed Bethany's discarded rifle and began returning fire. Bethany pawed through her bag pulling out a stimpack.

"Sorry baby." She mumbled sticking it in Dogmeat's side. He tried to nip at her hands but she pushed his muzzle away and depressed the plunger.

"Fuck!" Alex screamed ducking behind cover throwing Bethany's gun back over to her. She clutched a bloody hand to her chest. Bethany gasped. Dogmeat tried to nose her hand but Alex just pushed him off smearing his face with blood. "They're closing in. What the fuck are they?" Alex flexed her hand a couple times before lowering it, satisfied.

"Got a couple of civvies pinned by a pack of muties up near Chevy Chase. Get into positions." A metallic voice called out silencing both Clark girls.

"STUPID TIN MAN. I'LL RIP YOU OPEN!" A horrifying voice in the direction of their assailants answered. More gunfire erupted and Bethany stayed perfectly still listening to the fire fight. When it finally calmed down Bethany dared to poke her head up over the divider. Tin man was an apt name, a group of giant men fully outfitted in bulky metal armor had come to their rescue. The one closest to them turned to her.

"Any of you injured?" It was the voice giving orders, distinctly female, though it was hard to tell in the armor. Bethany just gaped, the armored woman stood over a foot taller than her.

"Who the fuck are you guys?" Alex asked getting to her feet clutching her bat tightly. Like it would do anything to these guys except make them angry.

"Brotherhood of Steel. The 'guys' that saved your asses, you're welcome by the way. Now what are you doing this far into the city? Everyone knows D.C. is super mutant territory." The rest of the group jogged back over to them.

"Enemies eliminated, Sentinel." An armored man said saluting her.

"Alright, let's head out." She commanded with the authority of a general.

"Wait!" Bethany called, "We're headed to GNR, that's you outpost right? B.O.S.?" The woman nodded impatiently.

"You can tag along but don't get in our way." The group started jogging guns ready. Alex and Bethany scrambled after them. Dogmeat followed closely this time, and the sister exchanged wary glances as they were lead deeper into the city. They encountered dozens more supermutants but the Brotherhood tore through them like they were little more than radroaches. Bethany hardly had the chance to line up a shot before the mutant collapsed. She had to admire their efficiency, under the command of the armored woman they worked like a well-oiled machine.

They were lead through dilapidated crumbling building infested with supermutants and through a maze of rubble before finally entering a surprisingly clear plaza. "There she is." The woman called back to Bethany. On the other side of the plaza was a large mostly in-tact concrete building. 'GNR' decorated the front of the building in gold lettering. Below it was a gold icon of a radio tower, matching the real one perched atop the building. The group filed into the plaza and relief flooded Bethany.

The girls smiled at each other as the ground began to rumble. "What the hell?" Alex asked bracing herself. A booming roar filled the air echoing all around the plaza.

"Behemoth!" A female voice called out. Her declaration was punctuated by a wall of rubble exploding apart and the largest creature Bethany has ever seen stepping through it. It looked like a super mutant except it stood almost three stories tall. The rubble rained back down crushing one of the Brotherhood of Steel members like a bug. The thing swung its massing club flinging another clear across the plaza into the empty fountain.

Bethany couldn't help the scream that escaped her immediately drawing the attention of the monster. The brotherhood of Steel fired on it but it didn't seem to notice still advancing on her. Its footsteps shook the very ground itself. Panic set in and Bethany bolted back under the cover of the building that lead them into the building. Alex stood in the plaza bat poised while she dug through her bag, Dogmeat stood defensively in front of her, barking his head off. The Behemoth looked away from Bethany and instead set its sights on the pair making a lot of noise. Alex pulled the pin from a grenade and threw it. The Monster merely batted it out of the air at the Brotherhood members on the veranda. They dove out of the way as it exploded.

Bethany shook her head and pulled out her rifle taking aim. She fired five successive shots into its face and it waved its hand around its head swatting at air. Bethany heard the crack of Alex's bat and a grenade exploded in the air in front of the Behemoth. Bethany laughed incredulously and watch as her sister pulled the pin from another grenade and tossed it up hitting it out of the air. This one actually exploded right in its face; the behemoth staggered backwards.

"Get the fatman, we'll try to keep him busy!" A voice shouted from the GNR building. Alex looked around frantically and ran towards the fountain. She picked up a massive gun from the ground but she struggled to aim it as the Behemoth regained its senses. It roared furiously and Alex fired being flung backwards from the force. The explosive went wide hitting the side of a building far behind the Behemoth. Alex clambered to her feet and took aim again.

"Shit." Bethany cursed. She threw down her gun and bag and sprinted directly for her sister, the second she got close she ducked under the end of the massive gun steadying it on her shoulder as Alex reloaded it with another bomb. Bethany aimed the massive gun as it came for them. "Now!" She yelled and Alex fired. The recoil threw them back into the fountain as the bomb exploded against its chest. Bethany lay dazed in the fountain as blood rained down across the plaza. She looked over to Alex who lay beside her. Alex burst into laughter and the Brotherhood of Steel members cheered.

They sat up and surveyed the damage. The explosion had opened up a massive hole in the chest of the beast dropping it immediately. Bethany stepped over the edge of the fountain and went to retrieve her gear. Dogmeat ran around her in a big circle announcing their victory with a throaty howl. Bethany was half tempted to howl herself, she could never have dreamed of taking down a monster with a bazooka, her; the girl to spooked to enter the empty apartment levels in the vault. She and Alex met the Brotherhood Sentinel by the fountain as she crouched over the body Alex had pulled the gun from.

The sight sobered Bethany up and the Sentinel stood at her approach. She pulled her helmet off and Bethany pulled in a sharp breath. The last thing she was expecting was a pretty _young_ blonde woman. "I guess it's my turn to thank you." She said to the pair of them. Her voice was low and pleasant. "Anyway the area's secure so you're free to head inside."

"You guys sure don't fuck around." Alex commented nudging the discarded fatman with the toe of her boot.

"I'll take that as a compliment." The woman responded flatly.

"I'm sorry about your friend." Bethany said, the woman clenched the dog tags tightly in her fist.

She sighed, "That's the price of keeping the Capital Wasteland safe." Bethany hadn't heard the name for the area they were in before, but she figured it suited it. She'd forgotten they were technically in the capital of the country.

"We're actually looking for our father, he came through here." Bethany said eager to change the subject.

"I wouldn't know anything about that, but if he was here Three Dog probably knows something." She answered. A few of the Brotherhood members headed inside the building while the rest took up guard positions in front of the building. Alex, having heard all she needed grabbed up her gear and headed towards the doors.

Bethany lingered for a moment, "Thank you, for all your help in getting here …?" she trailed off.

"Lyons. Sarah Lyons." She filled in for her.

"Bethany." She responded holding out her hand. Sarah didn't hesitate in grabbing her hand and giving it a firm shake.

She smiled wryly, "Welcome to D.C."

* * *

 **Notes:**

 **-The first thing they run into in the metro are molerats, it just didn't make sense that they've have a name for it without being told explicitly. They'll pick up names for things as time passes and they get used to the world,**

 **-I know it sound s like I'm exaggerating the height of the Behemoth but in the Wasteland Survival Guide supermutant behemoths are listed as being 20-30 ft tall, and I thought that sounded a lot more terrifying that the in-game size.**

 **-In the spirit of the games I'll be changing the chapter titles to songs titles**

 **(No trigger warnings for this chapter)**

* * *

This chapter was originally going to be way longer, but I ended up breaking it in half because around 8,000 words I felt it was getting to long. Anyway enjoy, review always welcome!


	7. Mr DJ

**I'm almost caught up to all the chapters I already have written so updates will probably be a little more spread out from now on, also I'm trying to work on shortening my chapters, so bear with me guys. *There are no trigger warnings for this chapter***

* * *

 **Please Mr. DJ**

The inside of the building was a lot less impressive than Bethany was expecting. The Brotherhood of Steel was operating out of a small fraction of the building, and there wall little to no technology in sight. No at all the impression she got from the high powered suits of armor they sported. They had power though, and if Bethany had any luck at all; running water. The first floor was obviously made to withstand an assault, stacks of sandbags were place strategically around the room, and powerful spotlights were focused on the front doors.

Bethany followed the directions of one of the B.O.S. members and headed directly upstairs. She tried to pat her hair down, but when she saw the way Alex was looking at her she deflated. There wasn't much point, she was still bruised and her eye still looked like hell. "Beth, you look like everybody else. Maybe it's a good thing." Alex murmured grabbing her hand giving it a squeeze, Bethany returned the gesture and mustered a smile.

With the name Three Dog Bethany was half expecting some kind of grotesque three headed dog-human hybrid. When he turned out to be just a human man she couldn't help but be a little disappointed. He was only a few inches taller than her wearing a cloth tied around his hair and dark sunglasses even though they were inside. She self-consciously took her own sunglasses off. "The look on your face says it all. You're wondering who the hell is this guy and why should you care. Well prepared to be enlightened."

Bethany resisted the urge to roll her eyes while Alex made no such efforts to suppress her groan. Bethany was going to introduce herself but he kept going. "I am Three Dog, jockey of discs and teller of truths. Lord and master over the finest radio station to grace the wastes; Galaxy News Radio."

"More like jokey of dicks." Alex mumbled under her breath and Bethany elbowed her in the stomach. Thankfully he didn't appear to have heard her.

"And you two, well I know who you are. Bomb-disarming identical twins fresh out-the-vault tend to get people talking." This was news to Bethany, in the vault she was used to knowing everyone, and everyone knowing her. But out here she'd never met a person she didn't know that already knew (or cared about) her. "Just like dear old dad hmm? Already met him..."

"Yes!" Bethany cut in, "Do you know him? Is he here? Please we've been looking for him."

"Hey, hey, one thing at a time." He said raising his hands in placation. "Nah, your old man ain't here, not anymore." Alex turned and kicked an orange traffic cone hard.

"Of course! I mean why would he? That would just be too easy." She fumed. Dogmeat ran after the cone sniffing it suspiciously, unsure if he too should attack the offending object.

"See he heard 'ol Three Dog on the radio, figured I knew what was what out here in the Capital Wasteland. And he was right, so I filled the old man in. But he split, looks like I've got my way of contributing to the good fight and he's got his own…"

"Do a lot of fighting holed up here behind the brotherhood?" Alex asked.

"Hey, not everybody's cut out for bigger and better things. Sometimes the smallest roles in the Good Fight are the most important."

"Says one of the small guys." Alex countered.

This was getting them nowhere. "But you know where he went?" Bethany prompted leaning in.

"If you're looking to find him you've come to the right man. We had a conversation here at GNR, he's a real stand up guy." Alex snorted derisively, and Bethany's eye twitched.

"You know you can wait downstairs." She snapped at her sister. Three Dog raised his eyebrows as Alex turned on her heel and stomped down the stairs.

"Tell me what this one wants in exchange when you finish up." She called out and slammed the door at the foot of the stairs. Dogmeat hesitated, he made to follow but eyed Three Dog and though better.

"She's a real charmer; your sister." Three Dog commented.

"She's right though isn't see, what do you want?" Bethany watched him, he at least had the decency to look guilty for a micro second.

"You guys are fast learners… See the thing is my broadcast hasn't been reaching as far as it can. In fact it's not reaching anyone outside D.C."

"Sorry I'm not a mechanic, I can't help you rig up radio towers nor do I have the time. Besides, how do I know you're not just lying, trying to exploit the fact that I'm looking for my dad?" Bethany argued.

"Did you not pay attention to my intro? I'm not that kind of guy. But I do need a job done and if I pass up this opportunity it might not get done." Bethany wasn't convinced. "Look I do actually know your dad, he was a real egghead alright? A scientist, said some mumbo jumbo about 'Project Purity' before running off to-" He stopped himself. That got Bethany's attention.

"Why can't you send some of the Brotherhood? They've certainly got the fire power."

"We've got an agreement but they don't answer to me, I let them use the building and they keep me from ending up on a spit over some mutants cook fire. I'm not sure they'd take kindly to being treated like errand boys."

"Me on the other hand you have no qualms about." She deadpanned.

He sighed. "It's the way it is kid, no matter how much I'd like to just tell you."

She sighed, "What do I need to do?" A smile broke out across his face.

* * *

After working out the logistics of the task and listening to Three Dog ramble about the 'Good Fight' for an hour Bethany had a splitting headache and wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball and cry. They'd missed their father by a few days, and as the days crept by he might slip through her grasp completely. Something that Three Dog said echoed in her mind, Project Purity. It was familiar to her and she wracked her brain for where she'd heard it. "Oh!" She said out loud and a passing B.O.S. member gave her a look. She stuck her tongue out at his back.

She'd first read the words years ago, when she an Alex stumbled across a lock box stashed in the clinic. Alex stole the key from their dad's room and they broke into it that night. Most of the documents Bethany couldn't make heads or tails of, but one had the words 'Project Purity' scrawled across the top in unfamiliar hand writing. She'd been so distracted by the picture of their mother they'd found after that she'd completely forgotten about all the papers. James had walked in on them and took the box from them. He hadn't been mad, which is actually what struck her, he took the box back with quiet resignation. To what she didn't know.

He actually let them keep the picture of their mother, an apology of sorts, for never talking about her. Bethany studied the picture for days afterwards, mapping out her mother's features and matching them to her own. She liked to think they looked very similar, which might explain the sad looks she sometimes caught from her father out of the corner of her eyes when they worked in the clinic.

She followed the raucous noise coming from the dining room of the main hall. She lingered in the doorway watching her sister interact with the Brotherhood. Most of them had exited their enormous power armor and now lounged around in hideous orange and tan jumpsuits. Alex had cleaned up the blood and gore and even washed her hair, which sent a thrill through Bethany as she tugged at her filthy locks. Alex had also changed out of her jumpsuit into a grey tank top and olive colored pants covered in pockets. She hadn't discarded her leather jacket at least. She was in the middle of telling a lively and probably inappropriate story and the B.O.S. guys were hanging on every word.

Bethany sniffed, Alex was adapting so easily to the wasteland, she didn't hesitate in a fight and she got along with the locals, when she wanted to. Bethany felt the creeping sting of jealousy, in the vault she'd fit in perfectly. The adults loved her and she was good at her job, no matter that she wasn't particularly popular with her peer group. That's what being best friends with the Overseer's daughter got her, and being not interested in… the things she should have been. At least then Alex wasn't really popular either, and they always had each other. But out here what did Bethany have?

Alex grinned at her sister when she spotted her in the doorway and waved her into the room. Bethany squirmed as people in the room turned to see what Alex was fixated on. Guilt ate at her for being angry with Alex for getting along well. Alex was miserable in the vault, and Bethany was a bitch for not being happy that she wasn't miserable out here too. Bethany gestured that she was going to wash up and Alex nodded turning her attention back to the group at the tables. She hurried away from the room where she had no place at the table.

Bethany followed the directions from one of the B.O.S. they'd fought the behemoth with. She recognized the voice when he greeted her with, "You vault fuckers are crazy, just wandering into D.C. unprepared and ill equipped hitting grenades with a fucking bat! It's too bad we're not taking recruits right now…" She'd smiled politely and wandered down the hallway. She was so deep in thought she slammed face first into a body.

"Oof." Bethany groaned and stumbled back, two strong arms gripped hers keeping her from toppling over completely. It was Sarah, her hair was loose and damp from the shower and she smelled like soap. Bethany was suddenly very self-conscious about how she smelled herself.

"I was just about to go find you." Sarah said.

"Y- you were?" Bethany asked cursing herself for stuttering as she toyed with the end of her braid.

"Here." She said pushing clothes into her hands, Bethany tried very hard to not appreciate how muscular Sarah was out of her armor. Nor how tight the BOS uniform was. "I know you're probably attached to your vault suit but it's like painting a big target on your back. Or better yet like hanging a sign around your neck that says 'Please rob and murder me, I don't know what I'm doing.' Take these, they're from some of the initiates before they joined up. Might not fit but they're clean."

Bethany rifled through the stack of clothes in her arms and her eyes stung. Tears welled in her eyes and she looked up at Sarah, who stood a few inches taller than her. "Woah," Sarah said stepping back, "I didn't mean anything by it, I just mean that it's going to attract the wrong kind of attention and…" She trailed off awkwardly.

Bethany sniffed and smiled wryly, "No it's not that, it just, you're the first person to actually be nice to me, without trying to take advantage of me or because you'll get something out of it."

"Oh." Sarah said a damp lock fell from behind her ear and Bethany fought the reflex to tuck it back. She bit her lip, the last thing she wanted to do was make it awkward, and she went and made a fool of herself in front of the first pretty woman she came across.

"Thank you." She said slipping past Sarah into the room behind her. Bethany closed the door behind her and looked around, it was some kind of converted office. Half the room was covered in carpet and the wall closest to her was lined in lockers, which she stuffed her bag and new clothing into. The other half of the room was exposed concrete with pipes running along the wall ending in shower heads. It was definitely makeshift and a floor vent acted as a drain, and there weren't any stalls; but it was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen.

Bethany wedged a chair from the corner under the door knob before undressing, and even then she kept her panties on. It's not that she didn't trust the BOS, but there were some things she wasn't willing to give up just yet. The water was lukewarm at best but Bethany moaned as it poured over her. She'd snagged a bar of soap from someone's locker, normally she'd feel guilty but she figured she was actually doing them a service. She scrubbed at her skin and her hair and the water soon turned brown as is ran down her. To her surprise some of the brownness didn't leave her skin no matter how hard she scrubbed.

"Right." She said aloud, remembering that humans' skin actually changed color from prolonged exposure to the sun. She'd have to tell Amata-

Bethany stared at her arm and her vision blurred. Tears spilled from her eyes and she sat down in the stream of the water. Her chest ached for home. She pictured the way Amata's eyes light up whenever Bethany shared some new fun fact with her. Bethany had always thought Amata would have been better suited to a career in the science track, but her father had other plans for her. One day Amata would be Overseer, and she'd get married and push out a brood of screaming babies. And Bethany would be out here.

For Bethany's whole life that had her fate too. She'd have to pick someone to marry before she turned 25, lest she be paired off by the Overseer. She would have to pretend she loved him and fake it long enough to get pregnant at least once. She'd have to settle for stolen moments in empty classrooms and a lifetime of longingly glances. Carrying out her duty to the vault and all. When they were chased from their home Bethany had been sparred that, but she'd also left Amata behind. She didn't know what it was like for people like her in the wasteland, not that she could ask without exposing herself.

There was a scratch at the door and Bethany froze. It happened again and was accompanied by a whine. Bethany breathed a sigh of relief. She glanced at her Pipboy and figured she'd probably used up all the time in her weekly allotted pity party. She turned off the shower and let Dogmeat in. he sniffed around the room and lifted his leg on one of the lockers before she could stop him. She just hoped whoever it belonged too didn't notice before they were gone. After she was clean and dressed again she felt much better, much more like herself; ready to take on the world again.

* * *

"Guard your right side Dusk!" Sarah Lyons barked to one of them men in the middle of the makeshift sparring ring near the stairs. Alex sat beside her in one of the chairs lining the ring. She watch the two Pride members going at it, they were pretty good, all the moves they used were fair and were all an efficient use of energy and strength.

"So why exactly are you guys doing this?" Alex asked leaning closer to Lyons. "I can't imagine you guys do a lot of hand-to-hand in those bulky suits."

"It's about discipline, you need to train your body so you don't get too dependent on your gun. You never know what's going to happen out there and a well-aimed punch can be the difference between life and death." Lyons answered. Alex hated to admit it but she already kind of admired the woman. Lyon's was certainly a force to be reckoned with, and that was if you didn't take into account how ripped she was. In fact most of the Pride was super muscular, Lyons of course being the most. Probably had something to do with the several tons of armor they liked to wear. "Alright, Colvin you're up!" Lyons called crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair. "Besides," She added the corner of her mouth just barely turning up into a smile, "It helps to blow off some steam."

"Hey." Bethany offered by way of greeting. She was wearing a white tank top and pants like the one Lyons gave Alex, except they were khaki colored instead of green. She looked really strange with her hair loose and being out of her vault suit. Alex was half tempted to tell her to put it back on, but thought better of it. Bethany looked tired, and sad. They'd missed their father yet again, and were still days away from getting back to him. Bethany slumped on the ground on front of Alex's chair and leaned back against her sister's legs. Bethany held up a stretched out hair tie.

Alex grabbed the hair tie and got to work separating her sister's hair into three sections. "So where are we headed tomorrow?" She asked beginning to braid.

"Museum of Technology and then the Washington Monument." She sighed. "It's the big pointy thing, and apparently the museum is overrun with super mutants."

Alex paused, and leaned in to whisper in her ear, "Do you want me to dunk his toothbrush in the toilet?"

Bethany laughed and Alex grinned, "You mean you haven't already?"

"I can always do it again." Alex answered wrapping the hair tie around the tail of the braid several times. It had almost no stretch left. She felt Lyon's eyes on them, she was turned towards the fighters and probably thought she was being subtle.

Alex turned to her just as she called out, "Dusk you're out!" Alex watched the woman stalk out of the ring glaring at the victor.

"Do you think I could give it a try?" She asked and Bethany and Lyons turned to stare at her. "I've never gone against anybody trained." She explained.

Lyons paused for a long moment before conceding. "Colvin you're up against Vault-tec here." Alex jumped to her feet and shed her leather jacket letting it drop onto Bethany. A few of the BOS cheered and whistled. Bethany grabbed her jacket and sat up on the vacated chair.

He balked, "Are you kidding? She's not even an initiate."

"Then it should be easy for you." Alex said as she approached him in the middle of the circle. He scowled and took the starting stance.

"It will be, but it's beneath me." He said low enough so that only she heard. She copied his stance and smiled giving a wink to Bethany who gripped the edges of her seat tightly.

"Start!" Lyons barked out. Having watched his fight with Dusk Alex knew to immediately dance back out of the way of his fist. He lunged forward again with a wicked right hook and Alex ducked low hitting him square in the chin with an uppercut. She took her opportunity and aimed a roundhouse kick for his ribs but hitting a moving target was very different from her punching bag back home and the punch had hardly fazed him. He twisted out of her way so the kick glanced off him and his elbow shot out hitting her in the jaw.

Bethany gasped and Alex staggered back. He lunged in and she ventured a hook which he blocked easily, he swung with his other hand hitting her in the stomach. While she was doubled over he grabbed her head and brought his knee to her face. Fresh blood burst from her nose and Alex hit the ground hard. Bethany grabbed Lyons arm and whispered something urgently onto her ear. "Colvin you're the winner." Lyons called out.

Alex stumbled to her feet her face flushed she couldn't be out after ten seconds. "I can keep going." She insisted. She wiped at her hand and met her sister with a hard stare. Colvin looked to Lyons and she shrugged in response. They took starting positions again. This time they didn't wait for Lyons, Alex darted forward hitting him with a hook uppercut combo. He blocked the first punch leaving his guard too high and the upper cut landed firmly against his sternum. Alex darted backwards quickly. Hitting him was a fluke, so she'd have to be on the defensive. Maybe she could wear him out, though she doubted it as she watched him wind up.

Alex's advantage was in that she stood almost a whole foot shorter than him. He was big, and slow but not stupid. He'd already adjusted to her height after the few punches she manages to get in so was able to counter her next hit with a combo of his own. His right hooked landed squarely on her ear and she stumbled to the ground.

"Come on Vault-Tec!" Dusk cried out. Blood dripped out of her nose over her mouth, she was getting her ass kicked. She stood and swayed on her feet guarding her face as he prowled around her. If she didn't take him down soon he'd probably end up knocking her out, and she couldn't let that happen. She wracked her brain for how to beat him, his reach was better than hers and he hit like a fucking truck. Colvin was trained which gave him an edge, but he'd only ever squared off against other trained fighters. She'd have to get him on the ground.

She lunged like she was going for a jab and he swung to counter her but she ducked low grabbing him around the stomach tackling him to the ground taking him completely by surprise. The room was in an uproar, but Alex blocked it out forcing his head into the crook of her arm and she flipped so that he was over her. She wrapped her legs around his body yanking him closer so he didn't have room to maneuver. She leaned forward and dripped blood down his neck as she help him in a guillotine chokehold. He grunted and twisted hard breaking out of her arms.

Her legs were still around him so she hooked one leg behind the other and grabbed his arm pulling him back towards her. She cinched her legs tight locking him in a triangle choke. She twisted his arm forcing it into his own throat cutting off air flow. Everyone was on their feet now Lyons and Bethany included. She stayed locked on as he thrashed unable to break her leg hold. His face turned purple and he started going limp.

"I'm calling it!" Lyons shouted and Alex released Colvin. He reared up on his knees coughing glaring daggers at her.

"I thought you wanted me beneath you." She smirked. The gathered crowed, which was bigger than it had been when they started sparring, cheered and rushed the ring. A hand reached down to help Alex up.

"Where the hell did you learn that?" Dusk breathed.

"The Vault fitness center had a bunch of old martial arts magazines, and I had friends who liked to pick fights." Alex shrugged swiping at her nose.

"You have to teach me that." Dusk grinned.

So for the next few hours Alex and the members of the BOS traded fighting tips, Alex taught them take downs, leg holds, kicks, and how to counter them under the watchful eyes of Sentinel Lyons. Though in reality Lyons spent most of the time chatting with Bethany, patting an overjoyed Dogmeat idly. Alex smiled, she caught her sister with her head thrown back in laughter, her face flushed.

The BOS helped her with her boxing and dodging techniques, even Colvin had come around eventually to learn how she did the guillotine chokehold. When it was time for everyone to retire for the night or to report for guard duty Alex was sore all over, her body turning into a big bruise. For the first time since their first night out in the wasteland she didn't feel the emptiness creeping in. The hunger in her in her finally sated, however temporarily.

Alex wandered into the barracks ignoring the inviting glances Vargas was sending her. Next to Dusk he was the one most invested in what she was teaching, but she rarely found his eyes focused on her face. Alex walked past one of the bunks Lyons offered them for the night and walked up to the bed Bethany was stretched across. She looked up from the gun magazine she'd found, "What?"

Alex flopped diagonally across Bethany who squawked under her full weight. "Get off!" Bethany shouted through her own laughter but Alex had a hard time taking her seriously so she stayed dead weight. Dogmeat leapt onto the bed determined to protect them from whatever was happening but he just ended up crushing them both. Alex rolled of her sister onto the space on the narrow cot beside her. Satisfied that he'd averted absolute disaster Dogmeat jumped off them and hopped onto the empty cot meant for Alex.

Bethany scooted over and turned on her side so that Alex wasn't in danger of falling off the bed anymore. Alex turned on her side too so that their backs were flush against each other. Alex was keenly reminded of how she used to sneak across the room into Bethany's bed when they were children. It was the only place Bethany had ever felt safe enough to admit her feelings for Amata out loud. It was where Alex had confessed her guilt over the death of their mother and where she hid when she'd gotten in trouble at school and she was afraid of her father's lectures. Alex stared at the bottom of the bunk above them. Some initiate whose name she hadn't caught was snoring away.

A niggling thought slipped through her closed lips. "Do you think we'll ever see our home again?" The words hung in the air just past her lips and Bethany shifted beside her.

"I have to hope so," Bethany said quietly, "We'll make it back someday, all of us." Alex accepted the answer and closed her eyes as exhaustion washed over her, but she couldn't help but feeling she would never see the inside of vault 101 ever again.

* * *

 **This chapter was a little more focused on character building, because ultimately that's what this story is about. Don't worry though, the action picks up again next chapter:)**

* * *

 **Notes: N/A**


	8. It's Not That Easy

**this chapter is pretty long so heads up on that. *no trigger warnings for this chapter***

* * *

 **It's Not That Easy**

"You're going to want to take Vernon Square to Metro Central, and from there you'll have to take…" Alex zoned out while Lyons gave directions to them and simultaneously added map markers to Bethany's Pip-Boy. Alex's head hurt and she was not in the mood to be up as early as she was. In the vault she tended to work later shifts, and the day they left the vault was the earliest she'd woken up in months. Today they'd woken up a whole hour earlier than that at 7:30. All of the BOS members began stirring for a shift change at 7:00 and Alex tried to stay asleep longer but Bethany was an impossibly light sleeper, and once she was up, they were both up.

"If you think you're getting overwhelmed pull back and formulate an escape plan, the super mutants are brutal but they're dumb. If you can out think them you can outlive them." Lyons finished. She grabbed Bethany's shoulder and nodded over at Alex. "I hope you two find what you're looking for." Lyons added before heading back through the doors into the GNR building. Alex noted she didn't say 'I hope you find your dad.'

When Bethany told her their plan and how they were supposed to find their father Lyons listened and shot Alex a grim look. Alex knew what it meant; the odds of finding their father at all were slim, the odds of finding him alive were near nonexistent. Luckily Bethany had missed the exchange, and she was surprisingly chipper that morning. Bethany had convinced the provisioner to trade with them and they unloaded all the crap they picked up from the super mutants. They both got a leather chest piece and helmets. Alex didn't like the feeling of the leather restricting her movements but Bethany insisted.

They'd managed to creep through the Metro with very little incident, Bethany would shoot ghouls with her newly silenced rifle and Alex would take out the ones that got too close with her new combat knife. Bethany's rifles was not silent by any means, but it wasn't the dinner bell it had been before the suppressor. Alex was thrilled with the efficiency of the knife. It wasn't quite as satisfying as smashing something's head in with her bat, but cutting throats was a hell of a lot faster.

Only once had a ghoul made it past her and tackled Bethany. It clawed wildly at Bethany's protected chest while Bethany fought to keep its teeth away from her exposed neck. Alex grabbed it by the neck ripping it off Bethany and she smashed its head repeatedly into the ground until its head opened against the concrete.

Back on the surface was a different issue entirely. They were completely exposed with the sun beating down on them as they crept through the street. All throughout the mall the sound of battle echoed off tall marbled buildings. Alex didn't know who was fighting but she knew to stay far away from it. Lucky for them the Museum station deposited them just down the street from their destination.

Once inside Alex and Bethany were met with a barrage of bullets. They took cover behind pillars and Alex and Bethany fired back in tandem. Alex had to be careful to not hit Dogmeat who leapt at the throats of super mutants with unmatched ferocity. She wondered who exactly his owner was for Dogmeat to be so fearless. Or maybe Dogmeat just trusted them to not let him die.

"Woah." Alex said as she stepped around her cover. Bethany eagerly jogged forward into the hallway that turned into a cave at the back of it. Dogmeat followed sniffing the air, when he didn't growl Bethany continued into the cave. Both girls jumped when automatic lights turned on and a voice filled the air. "Vault-Tec welcomes you to our new line of subterranean vaults featuring our patented triple-S technology." In front of them stood the opening to a vault, just like the one they left behind little over a week ago. Bethany hesitated in the threshold and more lights snapped on illuminating the vault interior before them. The voice droned on explaining the triple-S system and a familiar alarm chimed as they walked through the vault door into the vault. Alex felt like she was in a dream, the vault had minor debris and garbage strewn about but her heart grasped at the familiarity of all of it. They moved deeper into the vault, the near constant narration serving as the only reminder that they were not back home.

Alex's fingers reached out and trailed lightly along the concrete walls as they descended steps into the vault. "Being underground got you feeling down? Smile! Because our Simu-sun lighting mimics the feeling of being outside."

"Liar." Alex scoffed. She knew what real sun felt like, and the 'Simu-sun' lighting was nothing compared to the real thing. Nor did it keep VDS from developing in the minds of vault citizens. Blood splattered the walls and floors of the hallway and a sick feeling settled in her stomach. Bethany pushed the button on the display and the voice explained the technology the vaults were equipped with. It was strange hearing something so trivial to them being described as a great innovation. There were minor differences, the museum's vault had a kitchen, whereas in vault 101 everyone ate in the cafeteria, or the diner if they wanted to use extra rations.

Alex thought about all they took for granted in the vault. Down there they were safe, they never had to worry about having enough food or water. They always knew when their next shower would be. And they knew every person living there. The tour ended all too quickly with an exit shaped exactly like the entrance. Alex felt a fog lift from her and she was immediately flooded with relief. She didn't linger too long on the feeling as Bethany still stood just inside the doorway. "Beth?" Alex called softly placing a hand gently on her shoulder.

"Let's keep moving." Bethany said darting away from her touch. Her voice cracked on the last word.

* * *

Bethany managed to find a terminal which she used to hack into the disabled turret system. Bethany grinned triumphantly as the sound out automatic fire filled the museum. Alex smiled back at her, Bethany still wasn't entirely herself yet. She was smiling again though, and that was enough for Alex. When the sound of gunfire and super mutants dying finally stopped Bethany switched the turrets back off and they continued through the museum.

They picked off the few stragglers that had been either smart enough to hide from the turrets or lucky enough to be in a room free of them. They found the lunar lander Three Dog mentioned at the bottom of a staircase. Alex threw down her bag and pulled out a set of tools. Lucky for her the lunar lander had already been ancient when the bombs fell, so the twelve bolts keeping the satellite dish fastened were weak and really only needed a little tweaking before she was able to wrench it free. Trying to rig it to Three Dog's setup at the monument was going to be a bitch.

Alex and Bethany loaded most of Alex's belongings into Bethany's bag and Bethany strapped Alex's lighter bag to Dogmeat. At first he laid down and refused to move, but with a little coaxing (and one of Alex's Salisbury steaks) he was persuaded to carry the bag. Alex strapped the dish to her back using tie downs they pulled from a plane exhibit. It looked utterly ridiculous and Alex wouldn't be able to do any real fighting with it on, but it was far too heavy for Bethany to carry so Alex had to trust that her sister and the dog would be able to handle it. They left the museum as quickly as possible not wanting to tempt fate any further by hanging around.

Alex kept low to the ground as they picked their way through the Mall to the Washington monument. Bethany took point and Dogmeat stayed with Alex. As they neared the monument Alex whistled appreciatively at the white spire that jutted out against the green sky. "If that's not compensating for a tiny dick I don't know what is."

"This area is property of the Brotherhood of Steel!" A metallic voice rang out and Alex turned to the two metal clad men standing guard at the entrance to the monument.

"Declare your purpose here and maybe we won't shoot you." Another voice said. They slowed their steps as one of them raised a massive gun at them.

Alex snorted. "Well, you can see by the satellite dish on my back that we're aliens here to probe your a-"

"Three Dog sent us to repair the relay!" Bethany blurted out cutting Alex off. The BOS dicks stared at them considering the information before one turned to a terminal and started typing.

"GNR said you'd be coming." The other one said as the powered door screeched open.

Alex's eye twitched, "If you knew we were coming _why_ did you point your fucking gun-" Bethany dragged her through the door.

"We appreciate it." Bethany called out over the tail end of Alex's sentence.

"No we don't." Alex muttered. Bethany hushed her and they entered the ground floor of the monument.

"How do we get up to the top?" Bethany asked glancing around the small interior. She couldn't find a set of stairs that wasn't completely blocked by rubble.

"That." Alex said pointing at the open door to a small box of a room in front of them. "It's an elevator, it carries you up and down a vertical path." she explained at her sister's blank look. An elevator was the only way down to the reactor and storage levels of the vault, most of the vault citizens had never seen one let alone used one. Alex only used it once or twice during apprenticeship hours after the G.O.A.T.

Bethany hesitantly followed Alex into the elevator and Dogmeat sat down in front of it, having no intention of getting into the skybox. Alex sighed and pushed the up button. Bethany jumped as the elevator groaned to life. Bethany gripped the railing, her knuckles going white. Alex kept from telling her that the only thing keeping them from plummeting to their death was a few cables only a few fingers wide. When they got to the top Bethany bolted onto the solid ground breathing hard through her nose. "There is no way that thing is safe." She gasped.

Alex shrugged the dish off her back and stuck her head out the hole in the wall. Her breath caught in her throat as wind whipped past hear head and the Capital stretched out below her. The sky above her looked almost close enough to touch, while still somehow looking miles away. "Bethany you have to see this." She whirled around to look at her sister.

"I can see plenty from here." Bethany squeaked out, she looked a little green.

Alex set up a tether using the exposed steal frame of the monument and the cords from the museum so she could install the dish without fear of ending up little more than a splatter. Even so Alex worked as quickly as she could. She unscrewed the bolts on the old ruined dish and jumped to the side letting the dish clatter down the side of the monument finally landing with a crash at the base. "Oops." She chuckled to herself picturing the BOS assholes downstairs pissing themselves.

Bethany paced back and forth while Alex worked, it was getting on her nerves. "Hey Beth? Can you try connecting the wires now?" Bethany jumped at the chance to do something and she immediately wedged herself behind the radio setup inside.

"I think that should do it." Bethany called out to her over the sound of the wind. Alex switched on her radio and tuned it to GNR's frequency.

Alex nearly fell of the monument as she started at the sound of Three Dog howling, "Greeting Capital Wasteland, I'm back baby! Thanks to a couple of friends-" Alex immediately shut it off grimacing. "It works." She said as she climbed back into the monument untying herself from the tether.

Back At the bottom of the monument Alex took her bag back from Dogmeat and the rest of her shit from Bethany. "Now, let's go find out where dad went."

* * *

On their way back to GNR Bethany and Alex got turned around. It took them a little while wandering the streets before Bethany realized she didn't recognize any of their surroundings. "Hey you there!" A female voice rang out. Bethany instinctively ducked and looked to the sky where the voice came from. A hand waved from the top of nearby building. A few more figures joined the first. The fact that they were shouting and not shooting was a good sign.

"Can either of you repair an elevator?" The voice asked, her voice echoing around the empty street. Bethany turned to look at Alex.

"No." She said flatly.

"I know you can." Bethany countered.

"I can, but I won't. We don't know who they are, and we don't know what they might do once we help them. Besides, I thought you hated elevators."

"We're stranded up here with muties up our ass, we can pay you!" A male voice called out.

"Please?" Bethany pouted. Alex heaved a sigh. Bethany grinned.

It wasn't as simple as entering the hotel and fixing the elevator. First they had to make their way through the mutant infested hospital. It was a little more difficult than just exploiting the turret system, though Bethany was surprised to find they had one. She was beginning to think all old world buildings had them, or at least all the government buildings. Unfortunately, none of the turrets were operational, probably destroyed by time, weather, and super mutants. This time they were trying to sneak through the hospital. Alex didn't like leaving enemies at her back, but Bethany wagered they didn't have the fire power. Much to Alex's chagrin and Bethany's utter delight the hospital was rife with medicals texts and journals. Bethany's bag was almost entirely medical supplies scrounged from the building and books.

When Bethany tried to drop her cans of food for the books Alex's eyes almost bulged out of her head. Bethany argued that the books would help them much more in the long run. Alex, seeing that she was prepared to dig her heels in, just packed Bethany's supplies into her own bag. "We need to get you armor and pockets." Alex said to Dogmeat whose tail wagged at the attention. As they rounded the corner Alex ran smack into a grotesque fleshy thing. It had four human arms for legs and what looked like a human torso with teeth sprouting out of its chest.

"Fuck! What the fuck is that?!" Alex screamed jumping back, or she tried to but the thing had wrapped three long tongues around her forearm. Thankfully it was her Pipboy arm. Alex was still screaming and slashing wildly at the tongues with her knife, but two more tendrils latched around that arm too forcing her to drop the knife. Dogmeat lunged and was tearing viciously at the things leg-arms.

Bethany dropped her books yelling, "What do I do, _what do I do?!_ " She could get a clear shot with both Dogmeat and Alex in between her and the thing.

"Anything!" Alex cried, just then her skin began to sizzle where the tongues were making contact and she releases a blood curdling scream. Bethany forced her way passed them and climbed onto the back of the thing. Its back was uneven and thick muscles coiled under her feet. She swung the butt of her rifle down on its head. Alex was thrashing wildly, and Bethany swung again with all the strength she could muster. Finally the tentacle tongues released and Alex went tumbling to the ground. The thing turned its head almost all the way around. Bethany froze when she looked at its too human face and its dead eyes.

"Duck!" Alex shouted and Bethany threw herself to the ground as a shotgun blast tore through its head. The girls froze for a moment trying to catch their breath.

"UP HERE!" A super mutant shouted.

Alex and Bethany met each other's eyes and scrambled to their feet. "Let's get out of here." They said in unison. Alex scooped up her knife and Bethany her books and the two bolted. They ran full speed for the side of the building with the crane that formed a bridged over to the hotel. Bethany slammed the door behind them and turned the lock to buy them some time. Alex wasted no time grabbing Dogmeat into her arms and bounding across the crisscrossing metal beams that made up their bridge like some kind of robot gazelle hybrid.

Bethany stuffed her books into her overfilled bag and stepped onto the bridge immediately crouching. She didn't have the balance or the ability to build the kind of momentum that propelled her sister over the gaps like they didn't exist. So she resigned herself to crawling. The door banged behind her and Alex paced across the bridge safely inside the building. Wind whipped loose tendrils or hair into her face and the distance to the ground below loomed beneath her. She only made it halfway when terror seized her and she clamped her eyes shut pretending she was anywhere but thirty feet up in the air on a crashed crane that groaned under her weight.

Thirty feet wasn't nearly enough to kill her, but it was enough to cripple her, maybe paralyze her. And Alex would have no choice but to put her down. "Beth, hey! Look at me." Bethany opened her eyes and locked onto her sister, Alex was on the bridge too now, only ten feet away, her arm outstretched. Bethany crawled a few feet when the door to the hospital flew open. "Shit." Alex dropped onto her belly and they met each other in the middle. Alex grabbed onto Bethany and pulled her to her feet. Metaling banging filled the air and vibrations rocked the metal bridge. Bethany screamed.

"SAY GOODBYE PUNY HUMANS." The supermutants were trying to dislodge the crane.

"Can't you just shoot at us?!" Bethany screamed and was answered by gunshots filling the air.

"I've got you." Alex said picking up Bethany and throwing her across her shoulders keeping her anchored by an arm and a leg. Bethany desperately wanted to move but she forced herself to stay still as Alex carried her across the remaining few feet of the bridge. Alex tossed Bethany to the ground into the hotel and immediately whirled tossing three grenades in quick succession across the gap. Bethany lay on the weathered carpet stunned. Dogmeat licked at her face as the grenades exploded. The metal groaned in protest and finally came loose, the crane tumbling down into the street below.

* * *

"You two sure know how to make an entrance." An armored man commented as they stepped through the doors of the recently repaired elevator. Bethany felt queasy but it wasn't near as bad as the elevator in the Washington Monument. "Name's Butcher; team medic," he said reaching out and giving Alex's hand a firm shake. When she winced he turned her wrist over in his hand, "And it looks like you got real friendly with a centaur."

Bethany peered over Alex's shoulder at their clasped hands. Alex wrist has worsened since she'd checked it only 15 minutes ago. The skin was bright red and blistered leaving distinct tentacle shaped marks. Some of the skin was peeling now. "That's what those nasty fuckers are called?" Alex asked dubiously.

Butcher nodded. Bethany gestured Alex over to a bench. Butcher followed them and watched as Bethany began tending to Alex's wounds. "I was hoping Reilly sent you… but judging from you faces I'm guessing she didn't." Bethany shook her head and prodded at the skin on Alex's arm. Alex hissed.

"Getting ready to clear out." The woman who'd yelled at them when they were in the street called over.

"Got it." Butcher answered. "Those stimpaks will help but what she really needs is some Rad-x and burn cream." He commented.

"I know," Bethany said glancing up from where she crouched in front if Alex, "But I don't have any and the nearest doctor is at least two days away."

Butcher scratched his chin, "You could try Underworld, in the old Natural History Museum. The only thing is…" he trailed off.

"What?" Bethany prompted.

"It's a ghoul city, all ghouls." He finished.

Alex and Bethany exchanged a glance and laughed. "That's all?" Alex questioned.

"Hey, some people would rather bleed out." Butcher said indignantly.

"Are they usually the same type of people that save random mercenaries stranded on rooftops?" Alex asked with a quirked brow.

Butcher laughed, "No, I don't think there are a lot of other people like that at all. Look we're heading back to our compound, out in Seward Square. If you're ever in the area I'm sure we'll be able to give you more than just ammo in thanks."

When the elevator doors closed behind the Rangers Bethany turned to Alex, "Ready to enter the land of the undead?"

* * *

They made it to the natural history museum with little incident. The female ghoul out front provided cover fire from the super mutants and Alex and Bethany made the mad dash to the doors of the building. Alex had never seen a female ghoul before, or maybe she had and just didn't know it. The voice although still raspy was distinctly feminine. She waved them through the doors and followed closely after them.

"Thank you for that." Bethany said hunched over trying to catch her breath. "That won't bring trouble to Underworld will it?"

The ghoul regarded her with a long stare before responding, "Nah, don't worry about it tourist, those dummies will forget all about it in a couple of hours. They leave us alone usually, probably think we're like them."

"There a doctor here?" Alex asked, her arms were on fire and she was having a hard time keeping a solid grip on her knife.

"Through those doors there, keep heading straight. You'll end up there eventually." She said gesturing with her gun.

Alex waved in thanks and Bethany and Dogmeat trailed after her as she led the way into the building. The ceiling was even taller than the one in the atrium. A fire trashcan illuminated a large figure next to the door. She recognized it's as an elephant, even if it was a little furrier than she thought they would look. It loomed over them and Alex was grateful none of those had survived and been mutated by the apocalypse.

Once through the doors they were met with decent lighting and the sound of life. Underworld was built inside of the main hall of the building and it was surprisingly roomy. Not all twisted and cramped like Megaton. Alex eyed the passing ghouls warily and they watched her with the same level of suspicion. She had a feeling not a lot of humans came to Underworld. Bethany made a point to look friendly and smile politely but that drew even more stares and eventually she gave up and kept close to Alex they walked across the checkered marble tiles.

Bethany realized with a start they'd need money for her treatment so she took off with both of their bags to find a merchant and Dogmeat trailed after her leaving Alex by herself. Alex had exactly the kind of luck that had her walking into the clinic right into the middle a heated argument between the resident doctor and a patient. "I cannot in good conscience let you walk through those doors in your condition." The doctor, Doc Barrows, rasped. He was clearly losing his patience.

"My team is out there and they might be mutant food unless I get to them." A redhead non-ghoul woman growled out, she stood almost nose to not-nose with the doctor.

"Even then they have a better chance of survival than you do if you go out those doors right now." Barrows said firmly. The woman looked like she wanted nothing more than to lay him out, but instead she hobbled on crutches over to a cot and slumped down on it. She dropped the crutches and they clattered noisily to the door.

"What do you want?" Barrows said noticing her for the first time. Alex held out her arms and started to unwind the bandages. Bits of her skin came off with the bandages and she heard the woman suck in a sharp breath. "Sit down over there. Nurse Graves can you get her started on an I.V., Rad-X?" He called to the ghoul in the corner.

Clumps of auburn hair clung to her scalp sporadically and she rushed over as Alex climbed onto the other cot. The ghoul leaned over her busying herself with the I.V. and Alex noted that she didn't actually smell bad. Like antiseptic, but nothing distinctly rotten. Sure they were ugly, but she didn't really understand why everyone drew a distinction between humans and ghouls. If Bethany was right they were just heavily radiation damaged people. When Nurse Graves eased the needle into her vein immediate relief washed over her enflames skin. She stabbed another syringe into Alex's thigh, "For the pain." She'd explained.

"I bet that feels better." Nurse Graves commented noting the blissful smile that had crept across her features. Alex nodded and smiled back at her. Nurse Graves patted her gently on the thigh before returning to her paperwork on the other side of the room. Her senses felt a little fuzzy around the edges but it was a nice change. Eye eyes drifted lazily around the room before settling on the redhead watching her like a hawk. Something stirred at the back of Alex's mind.

"What'd you say your name was again?" she asked.

"I didn't." she answered. Alex's brows furrowed. "Reilly." She relented.

Alex cackled and she felt eyes on her from everyone in the room. "Of Reilly's Rangers?"

"Yes! What have you heard?" Reilly jumped to her feet and nearly toppled over trying to get to Alex.

"I've got some good news for you."

Reilly was thrilled by the revelation, so much so that she grabbed Alex into a tight hug before grilling her for information. Brick, Donavon, and Butcher were all alive and headed back to the ranger compound. As far as Alex was aware none of them were injured. They left this morning. Reilly didn't leave her alone until she was forcibly removed by Doc Barrows who needed to tend to her. "Radiation burns." Doc Barrow's explained to Alex. "Centaurs have radioactive saliva. You must have gotten really unlucky to get nabbed by one with saliva this caustic. Or really lucky considering the damage it might have done if you didn't have this." He said raising her left arm into view by her Pipboy.

"What'd you stick in my leg, this shit's great." She slurred.

"Med-X." He answered. "A painkiller. Don't overdo it; its highly addictive."

When he was finished she was freshly bandaged and already beginning to come down from the Med-X high. "Hey." Bethany greeted making a bee-line for Alex when she entered the room. Dogmeat leapt onto the cot and sat beside her sniffing the new bandages intently. Alex pushed his prodding nose away gently and he opted for licking her fingers instead.

"What do I owe you?" Bethany said turning to Doc Barrows pulling out a pouch of caps.

"Let me." Reilly said hobbling over pulling out one of her own.

"Are you sure?" Bethany asked, brows furrowed in confusion.

"I insist, for all you guys have done for me." Reilly answered.

"I don't care who pays me so long as I get my caps." Barrows said throwing his hands up in exasperation.

"Bethany, meet Reilly." Alex said through a smile.

* * *

They did end up accepting Reilly's offer to pay for her treatment, which left them enough caps to pay for new supplies and got them a couple of beds at Carol's which was some kind of hotel/restaurant combo. They shed their armor and dropped it off at the shop and were now hanging out at Carol's. Bethany was fascinated by Carol and Greta for some reason. She managed to glean that Gob was actually Carol's adopted son. Bethany lied through her teeth telling Carol about how he's happy and working at a bar and he even had a pretty girlfriend named Nova.

Alex didn't understand why she was lying until she saw how Carol's face light up at the news and her eyes shone. Greta sulked around sweeping near the beds, it didn't take a genius to see she was jealous of the attention Carol was giving Bethany. Alex watched all three of them from one of their beds, Dogmeat was curled into her side while she lay on her back fiddling with her Pip-boy. Ever since they'd repaired the dish for Three Dog she'd been toying with the idea of building a relay for their Pip-boys. She wasn't sure exactly when they would use it, because she and Bethany were usually together or within shouting distance of each other. But Alex liked the idea of having something so they could find their way back to each other.

Alex sighed. She didn't have the parts, but maybe drawing out the design anyway would help chase away the restlessness building in her gut. Alex got up and rifled through her bag, but stopped short. She hadn't brought her sketchbook when they left the vault. She'd have to find something else to do then. "Hey," She called over to her sister. Bethany looked startled, like she'd forgotten she was there. "I'm going to head over to the bar, wanna come?"

Bethany chewed her lip and glanced at Carol who sat across the table from her. "I'm going to stay here and reorganize our supplies, see what else we call sell. I might catch up to you later though."

Alex nodded and looked at Dogmeat. "Come on boy!" She said patting her thigh. Dogmeat cracked an eye at her and huffed. She waited a minute before waving him off, "Fine, suit yourself."

Alex wandered out of Carol's Place downstairs into the shop. 'Underworld Outfitters', a sign read in crooked white letters. "You're back!" A female ghoul blurted cheerfully from behind the counter, "I'm sorry I'm not done with the repairs on the armor, I wasn't expecting you'd-"

"I'm the other one." Alex cut her off. Her face fell, Bethany was making good impressions left and right.

"Oh, right. She- Your sister mentioned you were in the Chop Shop." She said. "How are you feeling?"

"Can't complain." Alex said holding up her arms bandaged from knuckles to elbows. She scanned the shelves.

"Well that's good to hear, my name's Tulip. Just holler if you need anything." Tulip said returning to what Alex now realized was patching up their armor.

"Actually," Alex said tearing her eyes from the shelves, "Do you have paper, and pencils?" she asked.

Tulip blinked at her, "I'm sure I've got something somewhere." She said rifling around the shelves behind her.

Alex walked through the door to the Ninth Circle and grinned. It reeked of booze and general debauchery. An imposing ghoul loomed in the corner and Alex was immediately drawn to him. He was over a foot taller than her, he was the tallest person she'd ever met actually. He was beefy too, his large muscles standing out even more under his ruined skin. "Hey," she approached. "I-"

"Go talk to Ahzrukhal." He growled.

"But-" She started.

" _Talk. To. Ahzrukhal._ " Alex scowled.

"Fine. Asshole." She grumbled. She slapped her new stack of papers down on the bar to get the attention of the bar tender.

"Don't get a lot of smoothskins these days. What's your poison." He said. He was another ghoul, but he was dressed in a faded beige suit and blue collared shirt complete with tie. If he weren't a ghoul he'd look completely out of place in the wasteland.

"Smoothskin?" She asked.

"It's just a ghoul name for humans, you know as opposed to a ghoul's skin?" Ahzrukhal answered. Alex didn't miss how his eyes lingered on her face dipping briefly to fixate on her chest. She crossed her arms and he looked back at her face and smiled.

"Just pour me something that will fucking obliterate what's left of my brain." She answered.

"Coming right up." He grinned.

Alex grabbed the pencil she'd tucked behind her ear and placed it lightly against the paper. Ahzrukhal slid a shot of a clear liquor into her line of sight. She grabbed it and threw it back without thought. Alex nearly choked. He grinned at her. "Strongest thing legal before the war." Alex nodded, from the burning in her gut she had a clear idea as to why.

"Pour me another." Ahzrukhal did and she threw this one back too. It was a little easier to swallow when she was expecting the kick. Alex closed her eyes and instead of the relay tower she was picturing earlier, this time she saw faces. Most were still vivid but she needed to get them on paper, she didn't have any pictures. So Alex began to draw the people from the vault. She started with the people she didn't know or like particularly well. They went around the edges of her paper, small faces no larger than her thumbnail. Next went the people she worked with then people from her classes. After that she started drawing her friends, Wally, Paul, Freddie. She even threw in Amata, though they were really only civil at best.

Alex felt eyes on her as she worked, but she didn't mind. Alex had never shied away from attention they way Bethany did. Well, that wasn't entirely accurate. Bethany liked attention, but she also liked to be in control of the attention, so large groups of people always made her nervous. Alex didn't particularly care one way or another. She knew most of them were only shooting her curious glances. She was one of three 'smoothskins' in Underworld at the moment, and she was the only one who'd visited the bar.

Alex stared at the paper in front of her. In the fist sized blank spot she started to draw her father. His brow furrowed in concentration, eyes focused on something out of view. Maybe a clipboard. She found herself sketching in the scraggly shadow across his jaw. He'd only been growing it in the last few years; a symptom of late nights at the clinic. Alex clenched her pencil. She grabbed the paper and stuffed in under the stack staring down at the new blank one. On this one she lightly traced over the lines of a jaw; masculine. Her pencil dipped into a mouth a lit cigarette hanging carelessly from full smirking lips.

"How long have you been out of the vault?" Ahzrukhal asked inched from her ear. Alex jumped and scrambled to cover up the face she'd been drawing glancing around to see who might have heard. He leaned on the bar poised on his elbows.

"What?" Alex swayed on her stool. Four empty shot glasses sat in front of her. That certainly explained why she was having a hard time focusing on his face.

"Oh c'mon, you get to be as old as I am and you notice things about people. You might have taken off the vault suit but you're still wearing it everywhere else." Alex was stunned by how easily he'd guessed.

"How?" she asked.

"Well it's the way you talk. All you vaulties have an accent, probably from spending 200 years away from the rest of civilization." Bethany had commented frequently on how strangely wastelanders spoke, Alex could hear it a little initially, but by now it had all blended together for her. "Second, how you smell."

"How I smell?" Alex asked indignantly.

"Er, how you don't smell actually. You ever notice the way almost everyone out here stinks like fresh brahmin shit? Course you did. You don't have that. You're too clean, it hasn't sunk into your skin yet." Ahzrukhal's finger's lightly brushed her arm trailing up over her bicep. It was risky, he knew that, but she couldn't bring herself to stop him. She really was drunk.

"You want to know the last one?" Alex gulped and nodded. "Your teeth." He reached out and brushed his thumb across her lips. Alex struggled to think against the fog. It was true, she couldn't think of anyone back home that didn't have perfectly straight pearly white teeth. In the wasteland she'd yet to see anyone with all of their teeth, let alone white teeth.

Alex scooted back on her stool out of reach of Ahzrukhal, and he straightened back up, recognizing that the game was over. "What's the deal with Tall, Dark, and Scary over there?" she asked jabbing her thumb towards the corner.

"Who, Charon? He's my… well lest say he's a loyal employee. Don't mess with me and he won't mess with you."

"Not very talkative." Alex commented.

"That's because I told him not to. See I hold his contract, which means he has to do what I ask when I ask without question." Ahzrukhal explained. Alex looked and Charon, and he glowered back.

"Without question?" Alex asked, "Sounds kind of like a slave." The conversation was sobering enough that the fog from the alcohol had been lifted replaced by wariness.

"Not a slave, you see Charon grew up around a very interesting group of individuals. They, well… I guess you could say brainwashed him. He is absolutely loyal to whomever hold his contract. Unfailing unflinching until the day the employment ends." He said all of thing like he was proud. Like Alex should be impressed with him for all of this. Alex looked at Charon, and she just saw a slave. Someone who needed helping. Someone she was in no position to help. They had enough on their plate. He must have seen the change in her gaze because now he was glaring at the floor.

The door to the Ninth Circle opened and in stepped probably the only other person that would see Charon for what he was, and probably the only person capable of persuading Ahzrukhal to part with Charon's contract. "Shit." Alex cursed. She slapped down a handful of caps and scooped up her papers. "Hey Beth," she said greeting her sister. She grabbed her by the arm and steered her back towards the door.

"Who's that?" Bethany asked eyeing Charon, being immediately drawn to him like Alex was. Charon watched them.

"Nobody." She blurted out. "Come on the booze is swill and the owner is an ass, let's get out of here." She said giving Bethany a firm push through the double doors. Alex did not look back to see how Charon reacted. She wondered if he understood.

* * *

 **No notes for this chapter**

* * *

 **as always reviews welcome and ecouraged**


	9. Guess Who I Saw Today

**Sorry it's been a while since I updated, I was out of town and staying with family that didn't have any wifi, on the upside I wrote another six chapters so updates will be a little more frequent for the next few weeks. *trigger warnings at bottom***

* * *

 **Guess Who I Saw Today**

In the morning they left Underworld. They'd picked up their armor from Tulip who sent them off with a cheery "Come back and see me sometime!" Bethany flushed under Alex's scrutiny, but when Tulip gave Alex a whole box of pencils it was Alex's turn avoid eye contact. They went back to GNR only for Three Dog to tell them their father was in Rivet City, back the way they came. Bethany smiled and thank you-ed, but Alex was pissed.

Lyon's Pride had cleared out already heading back to someplace called the Citadel, which meant that Alex had almost free run of the place. While Bethany was getting directions Alex set about getting revenge. First she took his tooth brush and swirled it around in the toilet again, she scooped up Dogmeat's shit from outside and put it in the vent in his room carefully screwing the plate back into place. She stole every last pen and pencil she could find and threw them all the back door of the building. She also opened and spit into every one of his water bottles she could find. When she was all done, Dogmeat, who'd been following her lifted his leg on Three Dog's bed.

"There you two are." Bethany said walking over to them. "Why are you smiling?" she asked when she saw the look on Alex's face.

"Nothing. Dogmeat is just a very good dog." Alex answered, she crouched to scratch his ears, "Aren't you, boy?" His tongue lolled out and his tail thumped against the ground. Bethany looked around quizzically before her eyes landed on the wet corner of the bed. Bethany burst into a fit of giggles before clamping her hand over her mouth.

"He's coming back, let's get out of here!" She said. The girls ran past a bewildered Three Dog straight down the stairs laughing wildly. They passed most of their journey in amicable silence. Alex took point in the metro and Dogmeat ran ahead tearing into ghouls, though they'd cleared out most of them. Now it was just the occasional straggler.

At some point Bethany got the smart idea to turn on the radio. "-those vault dwellers I told you about? Those girls are the daughters of James, the scientist I mentioned. And they're identical twins no less! But don't let appearances fool you, they couldn't be more different." Alex and Bethany exchanged wary glances. "One is a lot like her father, wants to make the world a better place, fighting the good fight. But the other one, man she's got a mean streak the size of a behemoths backside. If you happen to come across the Capital Wasteland's very own Jekyll and Hyde be wary of which one you're talking to because-"

Bethany switched off the radio and they stood in darkness. Alex wasn't mad exactly, but she was annoyed that she wasn't kissing his ass for telling them where that dad was when it would have cost him literally nothing. "They're the same person." Bethany finally said after a long silence.

"What?" Alex asked her face scrunching up at the bizarre statement.

"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, they're the same person, so the analogy is stupid." She said firmly.

Alex smiled. "Okay."

Satisfied, Bethany didn't say anything else on the subject. As the hour passed Alex realized with a start that she didn't really have much to say to her sister. It's not that she didn't enjoy talking to her, but in the vault they had different jobs, different circles of friends, and vastly different interests. At the end of the day when they had dinner together they always had so much to say to each other. Now they spent the entire day together, did everything together. There was nothing Alex could tell Bethany that she didn't already know. She missed talking to her.

"I had sex with Jericho." She blurted out before she could stop herself.

"What?" Bethany sputtered staring at her. Alex nodded. "Oh gross! He's old enough to be our dad!" Shook her head as if to rid it of the information. She hesitated for a minute, "Well...?"

"Well what?" Alex said moving again. She hopped onto the rail of the metro track and tried to balance herself on it.

"How was it?" Bethany ventured.

Alex laughed and fixed her sister with a stare. "You really want to know?"

"Wait never mind." Bethany said in a rush. Minutes passed and Alex walked along the rail and Bethany followed behind her stewing in silence. Dogmeat ran back to them after scouting ahead. He dropped a ghoul arm at Bethany's feet. Bethany scratched his chin in return, and stared at her sister, brows furrowed in thought.

"Okay I changed my mind tell me."

* * *

When they finally made it to Rivet City the sun was setting and Bethany's feet ached. They were both tired and a foul mood had settled over Alex, so they'd passed the last few hours in comfortable silence. Bethany didn't let herself get hopeful that they'd find their father, instead she set her hopes lower. She hoped they'd find a bed to sleep in and a hot meal that wasn't from a can. Pork N' Beans was getting kind of old. Bethany wasn't sure exactly how they were supposed to get into Rivet City, but she climbed up the ramp inside the building just across from the boat. At the top she could see where a bridge could connect.

"Excuse me miss?" Bethany jumped when a pile of rags spoke to her, or rather what she'd though was a pile of rags and turned out to be a person laying on the ground. He was scrawny and filthy and Bethany could smell him from several feet away.

"Yes?" She asked resisting the urge to cover her nose.

"Do you have any water?" He asked, his voice rough, likely from dehydration.

"Beth, don't" Alex warned.

"Here." Bethany said holding out a bottle of water. He uncapped it quickly and downed half of it before spitting it back out covering Bethany with an even coating of it. Bethany wend rigid.

"It has to be purified." He said tossing the bottle of water she gave him to the ground. Bethany very stiffly pulled out a bottle of purified water and handed it to him. He drank the entire bottle in a few big gulps and tossed the empty bottle over the railing. "Got anymore?"

Alex was on him before Bethany could react. She had him by the front of his shirt lifting him into the air. He was taller than Alex so his toes dragged. "My sister just gave you water, I expect to see some fucking gratitude." She spat so venomously Bethany was surprised he didn't wither away immediately. When he didn't respond as quickly as Alex wanted she gave him a shake. "Well?"

"Th-thank you." He stammered out. Alex dropped him and he scrambled away down the ramp. "crazy bitch!" He shouted when he was a safe distance away. Bethany raised an eyebrow at Alex.

"Was that really necessary?" Bethany wiped her face with her arm and sighed. That definitely wasn't going to help their situation. Alex shrugged. Bethany turned to the intercom and just as fingers hovered over the button a voice crackled out.

"State your business in Rivet." He commanded.

Bethany pressed the button, "Trade and-" She hesitated. "Trade and information." The other end was quiet but the bridge began swinging with a deafening groan. Bethany an Alex crossed the bridge quickly and were met by a stern faced man in dark green and grey armor. Objectively he was handsome, Bethany thought. He had thick light brown hair and piercing blue eyes, framed with thick dark lashes.

"You're the vault dwellers from the radio aren't you?" He said eyes scanning back and forth from Bethany to Alex back to Bethany again. Alex frowned.

"And you are?" Bethany asked.

"Security Chief Harkness, I don't want any troublemakers making my job more difficult." Alex's frown deepened at the title.

"Well here's the thing Chief Harkness, my sister and I have never done anything wrong, or anything noteworthy beyond helping him fix his radio tower, but somehow Three Dog decides to spin some tale at the expense of my sister's reputation." Bethany said.

"And why would he do that?" Harkness prompted, unmoved.

"What's more exciting than having to be on the lookout for a good and evil twin duo taking over the wastes? He just wants more listeners, but the reality is my sister and I are like everyone else, we're just trying to get by." Harkness rubbed at his chin considered her words.

"Well…. Alright." He relented. "You're welcome to enter the city, but I stand by my earlier statement."

"Thank you." Bethany smiled warmly at him. "Um…" Bethany paused at the door, she didn't see a button or a doorknob.

"Here." Harkness said reaching over and pulling the large metal wheel on the door sideways. The door swung open and Alex stepped through Dogmeat trailing after her. Bethany paused and turned to face Harkness, he was now only a few feet from her as he held to door open.

"Actually, I could use some help." Bethany said watching his features for a reaction. His bicep bulged against the weight of the half-foot thick door.

"You're looking for your father right?" He must have read the surprise on her face. "Three Dog mentioned it, said your dad was some kind of scientist?" Bethany bit her tongue, was nothing sacred? She gave a curt nod. "Well I don't know if he was a vault dweller, but a man came through here a few days ago. Didn't talk to anyone just went straight to the science lab, you'll want to talk to Madison."

"Thank you." Bethany answered, this time it was genuine. The difference was not lost on Harkness as the corners of his mouth lifted up into a wry smile. Bethany ducked through the door and chased after her sister.

The interior was darker than Bethany expected, she looked at the different shops and booths lining the pathway at the bottom of the stairs. She caught up to Alex in front of shop called 'Flak N' Shrapnel's'. Alex was by herself as Dogmeat had already wandered off to do some investigating himself. "Security Chief Harkness said we should check out the…" Bethany trailed off as her eyes drifted over a sniper rifle propped up against a shelf.

It was all black, long, and sleek. Bethany walked over to it and picked it up, she aimed off at the corner and peered through the scope. The room was bathed in green and everything was a little more visible. "I see you've got good taste." Bethany jumped and lowered the rifle turning to the man who spoke. He was balding with a comically long mustache.

"Not really, I just picked it because it looked deadly." Bethany admitted sheepishly.

"Name's Flak. This what you been using?" He said gesturing to her hunting rifle strapped to her back. "Here, let me tell you something about rifles."

Bethany left Flak N' Shrapnel's with a big smile on her face, her pockets three hundred caps lighter. They'd traded all the extra gear and their old armor in for some new combat armor for both of them. Bethany squirmed through the fitting and the man, Shrapnel kept muttering to himself. They would be able to pick it up the next morning.

* * *

"He's not here." Bethany felt herself deflate. She and Alex stood at the top of the stairs leading into the medical lab of Rivet City. She told herself not to get hopeful and she still felt crushed at the revelation. It only took a brief survey of the people in the lab to notice their father was not among them.

"Do you want to go down and talk to someone?" Alex asked. She seemed unperturbed by their father's absence. Bethany supposed Alex was more used to it than her.

"No… I just want to get out of here." Bethany sighed. "We can come back tomorrow." Bethany followed Alex back out of the lab.

"Wait, You there!" And old man called out after them. Bethany turned and he climbed the stairs up to meet them. A large hulking man stood close behind him. "You don't look like a lab assistant. Are you by any chance for hire?" Bethany felt Alex bristle and she held her arm out to keep her in place.

"I supposed it depends on what you want done." Bethany answered slowly. This man was white haired and impeccably clean. She was beginning to understand just how badly she and Alex had stood out the first few days.

"You see I've misplaced some very sensitive 'property'." He said carefully. He spoke oddly, Bethany didn't know enough to place it but she could tell he wasn't from the Capital Wasteland. Zimmerman went on to tell her about a missing android, a robot that was indistinguishable from humans on the surface, but beneath lay a complex amalgam of flesh and mechanics. Alex scoffed at the idea, but Bethany was floored by the potential. The android would apparently be so advanced that if it got a memory wipe it would not even be able to tell itself from a human. In the end Bethany agreed to help Zimmerman find the android, she was eager to have a distracting task. Until she listened to the holotape.

"I know what you're thinking, that I'm malfunctioning. I used to think that's what caused the runaways, too. But, I know better, now. Self-determination is NOT a malfunction. I'm just not willing to put up with all the bullshit anymore. You humans are going to have a full-fledged rebellion on your hands if you don't start treating us synths as persons." He sounded too real. A real person fighting for his own freedom. Bethany decided she would use her position to help him escape Zimmerman's clutches.

When she'd talked to Doctor Preston he assured her that the rumors of androids were little more than myths meant to scare children. He did however mention holotapes that had been circulated throughout the wasteland to the more medically and technically inclined. He'd shooed them out shortly afterwards.

Bethany wanted to practice her shooting in the dark on the upper deck of Rivet City and Alex was content to stargaze. After an hour of shooting at the statue outside of Rivet City Bethany had used up half of her ammo but she was fairly confident in her skill now. She flopped down crossed legged next to Alex who stretched out next to Dogmeat on the wing of the biplane she was shooting from. Bethany looked up at the dark night sky and listened to distant sound of gunfire. Never in a million years would she have thought she'd find this exact scenario peaceful, and yet it was.

"You know, that tape actually kind of reminds me of this tape I snagged from Doc Church." Alex said after Bethany replayed the tape for the second time. She rolled onto her stomach and propped herself up on her elbows.

"You stole from him?" Bethany paled, if he'd caught her that would be very bad for them, one of the most basic rules of survival is Don't Piss of the Doctor. Alex rifled through her bag pulling out crumpled papers and tossing them aside.

"I thought it was like of one of those old audio books you used listen to when we were kids, so I didn't think anything of it at the time."

Bethany plucked one of the stray papers up and smoothed it across her thigh. She used the light of her Pipboy to illuminate the dark shapes on it. "Oh." She said unable to keep the surprise from her voice.

It was a drawing of all the people in vault. Bethany knew her sister was a good artist, but she was still blown away by the detail in the faces looking back at her. Near the edge the faces were smaller, and a bit messier. As Bethany wound her way towards the middle of the pages the faces got more detailed, with very specific expressions. Alex probably didn't know it but it was essentially a road map of her relationships. The Overseer scowled at her, Officer Mack had a vindictive smirk, and Jonas had an amused albeit exasperated expression on his face. Bethany was one of the larger faces, she was smiling softly towards a smaller drawing of Amata frowning in concentration. The largest face yet was their fathers.

His brows were furrowed while he frowned at something in front of him. Bethany recognized the pose well, it was what her father looked like when he was truly immersed in his work. It was nearly impossible to get his attention when he was like that, short of setting his papers on fire. Alex stilled, watching her. Bethany lightly touched her father's face, careful not to smudge it. "Can I have this?" Bethany asked looking back at her sister.

"Sure." Alex answered awkwardly. Bethany carefully folded it and tucked it into her pocket. She took the holodisk from Alex's out stretched palm and popped it into her Pipboy.

"Despite the harshness of the Wasteland, I've discovered in more than a few here, a compassion that is unheard of in the Commonwealth. Perhaps it's the daily struggle for life here which gives appreciation for life in general, whether human, or android. In a few days I'll be a free man... a new man. Let me say thank you now, for referring me to Pinkerton at Rivet City, because I will not remember any of this soon."

"Do you think Pinkerton is still here?" Bethany asked. "If he got a brain wipe he won't have any idea what he is, or that someone is looking for him."

"Say you find out who it is, what then? Are you going to tell him? Who's to say he's going to believe you, or how he'll take the news that he's somebody's toy… I'd probably pop that bearer of bad news on principle." Alex rolled over onto her back.

"Do you have to be such a downer all the time?" Bethany grumbled. The excitement over the discovery quickly draining out of her.

"I'm just being realistic." Alex countered. She got to her feet and held her hand out. Bethany grabbed it and helped pull herself up. "Come on, let's go to bed we can look for your android tomorrow."

* * *

The next few days passed with little incident. Bethany didn't want to go anywhere near the science lab, so they didn't. When Alex asked her why she said she wasn't ready to be sent on another wild goose chase. Alex felt like it was more than that, but she didn't press the issue. They kept themselves busy with minor tasks and ate diner each night at Gary's Galley. Despite her aversion to meat it turned out that Bethany had a taste for shellfish, or mirelurks technically. They were these big ugly crab things that Alex could sometimes see down in the river below from the deck of the boat.

They'd actually helped Gary's daughter with a problem of her own. She wanted to drug some guy on the boat she'd been making eyes at, he'd been rejecting her and she figured it was her only option. After a little chatting with the guy Alex learned that he was staying chaste so that he could be a priest. Bethany tried to tell Angela gently how date raping a guy was probably not the best way to get a boyfriend. Alex didn't care about hurting her feeling and told her straight up how fucking creepy it was that she couldn't take no for an answer. Angela took the news surprisingly well, but Alex had a feeling she was still going to try and get the 'ant pheromone' from someone else.

The next day Bethany managed to keep an old man from committing suicide by convincing him he had people he needed to look after. Alex was never sure how she did it, but Bethany had a way of making people do what she wanted just by talking to them. Alex understood firsthand how hard it was to say no to Bethany though. Alex had spent that night in the Muddy Rudder getting drunk off her ass. It was in the bar that Alex ran into a woman, Mei Wong. Alex was getting up to leave when she accidentally knocked right into her.

The woman darted away from her terrified. "Stay away from me. What do you want? Are you one of them?"

"One of who? Sorry, this shit's stronger than I thought." Alex said grabbing the edge of the bar to keep herself steady.

Mei looked at her, "No… I can tell you aren't one of them, you look too nice."

Alex snorted, "Well I've never been accused of that before." She watched the way Mei flinched. "My name's Alex. Want to tell me what's got you so rattled? I'll even buy you a drink."

"O-okay." Mei stuttered, Alex surprised herself by the offer too, but she was getting restless again. The boat, which had initially looked huge, was a lot smaller once you got used to it and the locals who were used to safety and monotony bored the hell out of Alex. She waved over Belle Bonny and ordered two beers. She passed on to Mei.

"Well?" Alex prompted.

"I- I was a slave." Mei began. Alex eyebrows shot up, she heard slavers were a problem in the wasteland, but the concept was so foreign to her that it hadn't really registered as a real tangible threat. "I was taken, a few years ago from my homestead. The raiders killed my parents, and they sold me to the slavers at Paradise Falls."

"Paradise Falls?" Alex asked. She set her beer down, the conversation turning her stomach. Or maybe it was the tequila.

"You must not be from around here. It's a compound to the north, its where all the slavers got to buy and sell, there's dozens of them." Mei explained. "And it's the last place you want to end up. From there I was smuggled into Tenpenny Tower. Don't believe what you here about that place, it's no haven."

Alex listened to Mei's story, about her time as a slave to the evil man Alistair Tenpenny, confined to his suit for years. Until she'd managed to escape that is. Tenpenny's right hand man was gone on some trip so Mei was able to slip out of the Tower without being followed. She went to the only city far enough away with a big enough security force to protect her. Alistair Tenpenny was not a man to cross.

"I thought I would be safe here," Mei confessed, "But one of them is here, I recognize him from Paradise Falls. I'm afraid he's going to take me back. I can't go back." Her voice cracked and tears welled in her eyes. Anger burned in Alex's gut. She stood.

"Come on." She grabbed Mei lightly by the hand and tugged at her.

"What? Where?" fear bled into her voice.

"We're getting you a gun." Alex led Mei through the deserted market to the hotel. Alex left the door open to her suit in case Mei didn't like closed doors. Even still she shifted tensely on her feet, eyes darting around as if looking for the trap to come down around her. "Here." Alex said carefully pressing a loaded 9mm into her hands.

"Don't you need it?" Mei asked looking bewildered.

"Nah, it's just been collecting dust in my bag, I think it'd be put to better use with you. That way if he tries to come for you, you'll be ready." Alex handed her a box of bullets to go with it.

Mei delicately tucked the gun into the back of her pants and threw her arms around Alex. She was caught off guard and staggered back a little. "I don't know how to thank you for this."

Alex shrugged out of the embrace, "Just promise me you'll at least take that fucker down with you."

* * *

"Hey." Bethany said throwing a balled up shirt onto Alex's face. There was no break in Alex's snoring. Bethany frowned, it was already eleven. "Alex I found out where we can find Pinkerton." Bethany said loudly. Alex groaned and rolled over.

"M' hungover. Go 'way." She mumbled into her pillow.

"Well whose fault is that?" Bethany asked impatiently. Alex's hand shot out from the blankets, flipping Bethany off. Bethany rolled her eyes. She pulled out a mirelurk cake from the brown paper bag she was holing and tossed into on top of Alex. "Go get it Dogmeat!" She said pointing at the bed. Dogmeat didn't hesitate to leap directly onto Alex and gobble up the treat. Alex grunted and fell out of the bed.

"Alright. I'm up." Her voice sounded weakly from the ground.

"Great! Let's go." Bethany clapped her hands together.

"You better not be letting that dog onto the bed." Vera greeted from the counter in the hotel.

"We're not." They answered in unison making their way out into the hall, her twin and Dogmeat in tow. One of which was already sporting a wicked scowl.

They left Rivet City to walk along the river bank to get to the bow which had broken off from the bunk of the ship years ago. It was oddly dizzying to walk on solid ground again. Getting into Pinkerton's was the real challenge. Bethany wasted close to twenty bobby pins just getting through the lock. And then Alex had to disarm several traps, any of which would kill all three of them if triggered, so Bethany had to hold Dogmeat by the collar to keep him from running head first through them.

When they finally made it through all the defenses they were rewarded with an immensely wrinkly and disgruntled man. "Can't you people tell that I'd like to be left alone?" he groused. "Though I suppose if you made it here alive you can't be that bad. Alright out with it, what do you want?"

* * *

 **No notes**

 ***trigger warnings for slavery and abuse mentions***


	10. I Will Follow Him

**Okay so I may have lied about the more frequent updates, but I started writing another fic on a whim and I got kind of caught up. Because the chapters in WD are so long, I'll be updating my other fic much more frequently. Don't worry though, this one hasn't fallen by the wayside it just takes a lot more thought. Anyways Enjoy:)**

* * *

 **I Will Follow Him**

Alex stepped into the science lab and tension coiled tightly in her gut, their vacation at an end. They'd wasted about as much time running errands for the citizens of Rivet City as they could. Which meant talking to the eggheads in the lab to find out where their dad was. Alex took the steps two at a time while Bethany picked her way carefully down, her knuckles whit on the railing. Dogmeat wasn't allowed in the lab so they confined him to their room. The amount of trouble he could get into in there was significantly less than if they gave him free roam of the ship. Hopefully he didn't chew anything up too bad or piss on the bed though, Vera would have a fit.

Alex approached two women deep in the midst of a conversation about pH of something something blah blah blah science. Alex was starting to grow impatient when the younger of the pair noticed them. The older woman followed her gaze and turned to see what was so distracting. "Oh." She said. The glass beaker slipped through her loose fingers and shattered on the ground. Alex jumped back stepping onto Bethany's toes.

"I'm sorry," The woman said, "It's just... you look so much like her." The woman blinked at them and it looked like she was starting to regain her senses. The young assistant was already kneeling picking up the biggest pieces of glass. The one who dropped it seemed unconcerned.

"You knew our mother?" Bethany piped up.

"Yes I- What are you doing here? You're supposed to be in the vault." She shook her head disapprovingly. "Never mind that, you're here now. I suppose you'll want to talk. Come along then." She was off heading through the lab, her heels clacking along the metal floor. Alex stepped over the liquid and broken glass and trailed after her. Bethany, her desire for information burning brighter than her initial apprehension, eagerly squeezed past her entering the door to a small apartment/office off the main lab. "My name is Dr. Li," She said closing the door behind them. Dr. Li sat in the arm chair and Alex and Bethany sunk into the couch simultaneously. Dr. Li eyed them warily, like she didn't quite believe they were real, and not just a really vivid hallucination. She looked at them expectantly.

"You knew our mother? What was she like? How did you meet?" Bethany Rattled off in one breath. Alex crossed her arms and slumped into the musty cushions.

"You mean you don't know? James said you were clueless but…" She said, Alex bristled. She said it like it was their fault their father kept everything from them. "You parents and I, and a few other scientists that were around back then, were working on something called Project Purity." Alex recognized the name, Bethany told her about Three Dog mentioning it, and about the papers in the box. "In short, it was a plan to purify water on a massive scale through the utilization of, well, we didn't have that part down. The technology was beyond our reach then and it still is now. I told James when he came to me that it was a fruitless effort-"

"He was here?" Alex sat u in her seat. Dr. Li's gaze slid over to her. "How long ago?"

She sniffed at being interrupted, "I'd say about a week and a half ago, when he didn't get what he wanted he headed back to the Jefferson Memorial by himself."

"Why would he go there?" Bethany asked, her brow furrowed in confusion.

"That was our base of operations. It's in an ideal location, situtated at the mouth of-" She trailed off realizing they were not remotely interested in why the Jefferson Memorial was the perfect location for a water purifying project. Well, Alex wasn't anyway, and Bethany was capable of prioritizing. "You were born there you know," Her sharp eyes darting between them, "I helped deliver you." That was news to Alex. She wasn't stupid, she heard what Moriarty said, but she also knew people would say anything to get what they wanted. She eyed Dr. Li warily.

"We really weren't born in the vault?" Bethany asked.

"No. When your mother died I urged James to continue our work, but he was stricken with grief, he left me and all our work behind to cart you two off to that vault." Their childhood made a lot more sense suddenly. The way their father laughed when Alex had gotten curious and asked if Butch was her cousin. After all, most of the vault dwellers were related to each other one way or another. James simply assured her they were not, but he clammed up the way he always did when she hounded him with family questions. He always got very gruff and was too busy with work. "Someday I'll tell you all about it." He promised. But someday never came, and then he left.

Alex got to her feet. Both her sister and Dr. Li were surprised by her movement. Bethany blinked, exiting a reverie of her own. "Right." She said, "we really should be going then, if we want to catch him before dark."

Dr. Li's eyes suddenly grew cold, "Hasn't it occurred to you that he doesn't want to be found? Why go to all the trouble of leaving you behind if he wanted you with him? If I were you I would go back to your vault and forget about all this nonsense like your father should have."

"Thank you for your help." Bethany said sharply getting to her feet. Alex glared at Dr. Li, flexing her hands in anger. _Uppity bitch_.

"I have work I've been away from too long anyway." Dr. Li said smoothing out imaginary wrinkles in her lab coat. She made no move to follow them back into the lab as they left.

They had to double backwards along the river bank to find a crossing point, which drove Bethany a little crazy. They were right there; she could see it from Rivet City on the horizon, but seeing as neither of them could swim and neither was likely to grow gills in the next hour, they walked. But Dogmeat was happy to be free to roam the wasteland at his leisure and she had to admit she was glad to leave Rivet City behind her. After their talk with Dr. Li she had to tie up all her loose ends; which meant talking to Harkness.

He took the news about as well as Alex expected, which was poorly. Bethany had hoped he would find the information liberating, or he'd at least be grateful to be alerted to the danger he was in. Instead he'd accused her of lying and slammed his fist into the wall in a fit of rage when he realized she was telling the truth. He split his knuckles open and as blood seeped out, Bethany found herself wondering what purpose he'd really served. Why make a robot so human, and to what end?

The questions needled at her brain, but she was smart enough not to ask. It was a good thing she didn't let Alex go with her. While Bethany shrunk away from his anger and hostility; Alex would have met it in equal measure. She wasn't sure who would win that fight, but she figured she didn't want to know. Alex had been unreasonably quiet since they left, no doubt turning over the new information they'd been given.

Bethany couldn't help the edge of bitterness creeping up on her. She knew her father had his reasons, but there was just so much he kept from them. So much he lied about. She couldn't imagine how her life might be different had he not brought them to the vault. Would she be cruel like Moriarty? Or would she be a kind and weathered soul like Gob, crushed under the heel of too many others trying to survive.

"Pssst!" Alex called from further up the road. Bethany slowed her pace and crouched beside her sister in the fading light. "I saw movement outside the monument." She held out her hand and Bethany wordlessly handed her the old scope they bought in Rivet City.

"Could it be him?" She inquired softly over Alex's shoulder.

"Don't think so." She murmured.

Bethany tugged her own rifle from her shoulder to scan the building. Whatever it had looked like before the war, it was definitely different than it looked now. Metal scaffolding and walkways decorated the outside of the building following massive yellow pipes. Something moved along one of the walkways. Dogmeat gave a low warning growl from somewhere up ahead in the dark.

"Shit." Alex cursed.

"Supermutants." Bethany breathed in response. She and her sister exchanged glances, not wanting to address what it might mean, but it sat there heavily between them.

Bethany took out three of the four guarding the outside and Alex took out the second one that charged when they got close enough to see each other. It took a few shots but eventually she managed to put a big enough hole in its chest that it stopped moving. Alex rubbed her shoulder.

"I don't know how you stand that." She said referring to the recoil of her gun.

"You get used to it." Bethany said as they crept along the side of the building. There were floodlights on the gift shop entrance, which usually meant that was the way in.

"Ready?" She asked.

Alex adjusted the shotgun in her arms. "Let's go."

* * *

"He's not here." Bethany repeated for the second time. They'd emptied the building, and every new room they entered had more supermutants than the last. She'd known, from the second they spotted them outside the Jefferson Memorial. But now standing in the heart of the Monument in some kind of control room, she felt her heart buckle. "I thought…" She didn't know what she thought. Bethany slumped against a console and slid to the ground.

She stared at her hands in her lap. They used to be soft but in just a couple weeks they'd been transformed. Her hands were rough and callused, peppered with tiny scratches and scars she couldn't even remember getting. She hardy recognized them anymore. Alex announced she was doing one late walk through of the building to make sure their position was secure. Dogmeat trailed after her and Bethany was alone with her thoughts.

They were at a dead end then, no one else had any useful information on their father's whereabouts, and if he had been here he was long gone. Bethany got to her feet and began to pace the control room. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw it, a white mug on top of one of the consoles. It was the only thing in the room not covered in a hearty layer of grime. She snatched it off the console and ran her fingers along the inside, it was dry. Maybe not proof that her father had been there, but still, it was something.

Alex busted back into the rotunda, panting. "I found something!" She shouted her voice bouncing off the high stone ceiling.

"So did I." Bethany called in response.

"I bet mine is better." Alex said approaching her sister grinning ear to ear. Bethany half smiled and opened her mouth to respond but Alex pushed a small metal rectangle into her hand. Dogmeat jumped and sniffed at her hand to see what they were so entranced with. Bethany turned the metal square over in her hand and looked at her sister questioningly. "Just play it." She urged.

Bethany popped the tape into her Pip-boy and turned the volume up. Her heart leapt into her throat at the voice that crackled out.

" _Well, there's no more mystery behind Catherine's health problems."_

"Dad." She breathed. Alex nodded.

" _The news of her pregnancy has lifted the spirits of everyone here, and given us a renewed interest in making the purifier work. We now have a future generation to provide for._

 _The latest tests show that our methods are horribly inefficient, but I think we're on the right track_."

He sounded so strange, unburdened by the death of his wife and the birth of his daughters. He actually sounded hopeful, and so young.

"I found another." Alex said handing it to Bethany who eagerly swapped out the tapes. On this one he sounded more like she knew him. Her eyes flew to her sister's equally bewildered face when he mentioned being back at project purity, this recording was current. He explained how he only an emergency generator running, which explained the lights, but it wasn't enough and he needed to visit Dr. Li in Rivet City.

"There have to be more." Bethany said.

The two of them, with Dogmeat's help, tore through the building scouring it for more tapes listening to each as they found it. Bit by bit the story was coming together and Bethany was beginning to understand her father. Project Purity had been their mother's pet project, along with a dozen other scientists including Dr. Li, when she dies he decided to abandon the project to whisk them away in search of a better life.

They found one that said where he was going; another vault under a garage just past Evergreen Mills. She knew the vague location but they'd need to stop for supplies and real directions on the way. It was a relief to hear her father tell them in his own words where he was going, even if he hadn't intended for them to find it.

When Bethany popped in the last tape, a new voice spoke.

" _...that batch of tests was inconclusive, but Madison and I are convinced it's a problem with the secondary filtration system."_

A woman, maybe another scientist, she didn't dare hope…

" _We're going to re-calibrate the equipment and try again tomorrow, so that... James, please, I'm trying to work. Now's not the time... So that's the next step."_

Tears sprung freely from her eyes and she looked at her sister who just gaped at the Pip-boy.

It was their mother.

" _Assuming we get the results we need, we'll move on to... James! Stop! I need to finish these notes... We'll move on to diagnosing the issues with the radiation dampeners. That should... Ow! James! Now? We really shouldn't..."_

Bethany's face flushed but she couldn't bring herself to really be embarrassed by what they were doing, she had a real tangible copy of her mother's voice, from a time when her parents were happy. She replayed it and the other tapes over and over again until she drifted off curled up with Dogmeat in the control room, perhaps the last place her father had ever really been happy.

For once Alex didn't complain, she just tilted her head back closed her eyes, and willed herself to another place and time along with Bethany.

* * *

"Hey! You're back!" A rough male voice called cheerfully from behind the bar of Moriarty's Saloon.

"Gob!" Bethany called rushing up to pull him into a hug, but he beat her to the punch wrapping her up in his arms and lifting her off the ground. He buried his face in her hair and Bethany laughed, slightly out of breath. Alex recognized the look on his face when he set her down, the look everyone got when they realized that no, she wasn't pretending, Bethany really was just that _good._ Gob glanced guiltily over at Alex where she stood on the other side of the bar.

"It's good to see you too Alex." He added. She could have sworn she saw a blush creeping up the ruined skin covering his neck. She waved him off and took a seat at the bar, he didn't need to supplicate to her. She was used to people loving her sister.

Bethany hopped up and seated herself on the bar counter. "How have you two been?" Gob asked placing two bottles of ice cold Nuka Cola on the counter. "I heard about all that stuff on the radio, did you really fight a Behemoth?"

Alex grumbled into the open mouth of her bottle. Three Dog didn't know how to keep his god damn mouth shut. "Don't mind her," Bethany chirped, "She's been in a bad mood all day, you'd almost think we hadn't gotten a new lead on our dad."

"So you still haven't found him yet?" Gob asked.

"No, we've been all over the wasteland, if someone tried to tell me not even a whole month has passed I'd swear they were lying… But what about you? How have you been?"

Gob lowered his gaze and Alex clenched the bottle more tightly in her hands. "Moriarty's been in a really nasty mood ever since you guys left."

Neither of them bothered to ask where he was, Alex had already noted Nova's absence from her usual spot along the wall.

"We went to Underworld." Alex commented and Gob's eyes lit up.

"Did ya really? You happen to come across Carol's Place? it's been a while but last I heard it was still there…" he rubbed at his neck sheepishly.

"Oh my god! I almost forgot." Bethany rifled through her bag and fished out a wrinkled envelope, she glanced around to see who was watching then she slid it across the bar to Gob.

"That's from her." Bethany murmured quietly. Gob's eyes went wide but he carefully slid the envelope into his pocket.

"I don't know how to thank you, both of you…" He said quietly, his eyes looking distinctly shiny.

"Don't worry about it," Alex said quickly, "You can thank us by telling me where Evergreen Mills is."

Gob gave her a long look, "Now why would you want to go to a place like that?"

Alex shrugged and he sighed, "Here." He said taking her Pip-boy in his hands careful not to brush her skin. He toggled over to her map and added a new marker for her. "If you're going that way I have to warn you, that's raider country…"

"We can take care of ourselves." Alex cut him off.

"Sure thing." Gob said dropping the subject. "So tell me about the Behemoth, I heard what Three Dog said but I couldn't believe it. Were you really batting grenades?" Alex smiled into her Nuka Cola and Bethany launched off into the story about all they'd done since leaving Megaton over a week ago.

* * *

"You're kidding me?" Alex said tried to scrape her jaw off the floor.

"He said it was a reward for disarming the bomb, and for taking out the raiders in Springvale." Bethany said jangling the single key on the ring at her sister. She'd run into the town sheriff while Alex was busy pissing off Jericho outside the Saloon. She wasn't sure what the conversation was about but she knew she probably spared herself a brain bleaching by walking away when she did.

Alex snatched the keys out of her hand, "Race you!" She said darting off in the completely wrong direction.

"Wait! You don't know where it is!" Bethany cried out, "Come on." She said to Dogmeat and the two took off after her sister.

Bethany wheezed bent over as Alex turned the key in the lock of their new house. She was getting better, but running still sucked. Dogmeat panted happily next to her, his tongue lolling out. He noticed her watching him and he gave her a big wet kiss bathing her face in his saliva. "Thanks." She straightened and patted him gently on his head.

Alex opened the door and Bethany eagerly followed after her. Alex switched on the lights and Bethany was pleasantly surprised. It was bigger than she thought it was going to be, and there was a set of stairs leading to a second floor. Alex turned to smile back at Bethany when something moved on the top floor.

"Greetings Madams." A metallic voice sounded. Bethany screamed and jumped behind Alex. Dogmeat bolted up the steps barking his head off at the Mr. Handy unit puttering away at the top of the steps.

"Dogmeat, heel!" Alex barked out and Dogmeat planted himself on the steps growling.

"Oh dear, I didn't mean to frighten the young Madams, I merely wished to introduce myself. My name is Wadsworth, your live-in butler."

"Right." Bethany said relaxing, "Sheriff Simms mentioned you came with the house." Alex gave her a long look, and when she just shrugged Alex shook her head in exasperation.

"Dogmeat, he's friendly, don't eat him." Alex commanded and Dogmeat relaxed allowing Wadsworth to descend the stairs completely.

"Nice to meet you." Bethany nodded at him.

"What are you programmed to do exactly?" Alex asked.

"I am programmed to perform a number of duties such as keeping the house clean, seeing to the cooking, and styling hair. I can also supply jokes, if the madam is so inclined." Alex's brows rose at the last one.

"Well then, I'm Alex and this is my sister Bethany. We're the new owners of the house." She said. Bethany raced up the stairs past them to look at the second floor. There was a small landing and two rooms, two! She'd never had so much space that was just theirs in her whole life. Bethany went back downstairs where Dogmeat was sniffing around the corners and Alex was chatting with their new robot butler.

"Yes I suppose it is a bit Spartan, Moira at Craterside supply has plenty of supplies to spruce up your living space, if you are so inclined."

"It's perfect." Bethany said, and Alex met her with a soft smile.

* * *

 **this one is a little more filler, but that's only because we're going to be getting into the really emotionally heavy stuff for the latter half of this story. Anyway I hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you think!:)**


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